Women-led small businesses suffered the most from omicron wave
The omicron wave slowed down a recovery that was on its way for small companies around the world. In January this year one in five small businesses reported being closed, an increase since July last year. Small businesses led by women and minority-led continues to suffer the most.
Meta´s Global State of Small Business Reports have consistently found that women and minority-led businesses have been hit the hardest during the pandemic. That remained sadly true during the Omicron wave”, Meta said in an updated report
In the US, both categories saw a 6% increase in closures – to 25% for women-led businesses and 26% for those led by minorities. Black-owned businesses also faced troubling drops in sales. Just over half said sales were down on last year, compared to 36% of other US small businesses.
76% of women-led SMBs using the Facebook platform reported that they were operational or engaging in any revenue-generating activities compared to 82% of SMBs led by men; 38% of operational women-led SMBs reported sales in the past month were higher than the same month the previous year versus 36% for companies led by men; 63% of women-led SMBs said they were confident in their ability to continue operating for at least 12 months, if current circumstances were to continue, compared to 62% of SMBs led by men.
The survey comprised nearly 24,000 small and medium-sized business leaders across 30 countries and territories and was conducted in January, when many parts of the world were seeing a surge in cases due to the Omicron variant.
North America saw the largest increase in closure rates, rising seven percentage points to 21%. The Middle East and North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa regions continue to have the highest closure rates, although they have remained stable.
“Despite the setbacks, the survey found a number of reasons to be optimistic for the future. Overall, businesses globally were less concerned about issues with demand and cash flow than they were last summer.”
”Despite the increased closure rates, employment remained stable. Approximately 11% of businesses reported that employment had increased, the same percentage as in July 2021, with large gains in East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
A quarter of the businesses surveyed said they were currently digital-only. Four in every five businesses said they had used digital tools in the last 30 days. More than a third of small businesses that made at least 50% of their sales digitally also reported improved sales overall.
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