New Report: Teetering and Worrying: How Businesses Owned by People of Color Are Faring

Posted by Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on May 11, 2021
As policymakers and service providers continue to enact programs to help small businesses weather the COVID-19 crisis, a new report illuminates differences in the experiences of firms owned by people of color and firms owned by White people.
  • Black- and Hispanic-owned firms were half as likely to be fully approved for financing as White-owned firms.
  • Businesses owned by people of color were more likely than White-owned businesses to report reducing operations or temporarily closing during the pandemic.
  • Ninety-three percent of Asian-owned firms, 86 percent of Black-owned firms, and 85 percent of Hispanic-owned firms reported sales declines due to the pandemic, compared with 79 percent of White-owned firms.
These are just three findings of the 2021 Report on Firms Owned by People of Color recently published by the 12 Federal Reserve Banks. The report is the second based on the Federal Reserve Banks’ Small Business Credit Survey, an annual survey of small business owners fielded in September and October of 2020.

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