Business
Mapped: The State of Small Business Recovery in America
Mapped: The State of Small Business Recovery in America
In the business news cycle, headlines are often dominated by large corporations, macroeconomic news, or government action.
While mom and pop might not always be in focus, collectively small businesses are a powerful and influential piece of the economy. In fact, 99.9% of all businesses in the U.S. qualify as small businesses, collectively employing almost half (47.3%) of the nation’s private workforce.
Unfortunately, they’ve also been one of the hardest-hit sectors of the economy amid the pandemic. From the CARES Act to the new budget proposal, billions of dollars have been allocated towards helping small businesses to get back on their feet.
Small Business Recovery in 50 Metro Areas
During the pandemic, many small businesses have either swiftly pivoted to survive, or struggled to stay afloat. This map pulls data from Opportunity Insights to examine the small business recovery rate in 50 metro areas across America.
So, has the situation improved since the last time we examined this data? The short answer is no—on a national scale, 34% of small businesses are closed compared to January 2020.
San Francisco is one of the most affected metro areas, with a 48% closure rate of small businesses. New York City has spiralled the most since the end of September 2020.
U.S. Metro Area | % Change in # of Small Businesses Open (As of Sep 25, 2020) | % Change in # of Small Businesses Open (As of Apr 23, 2021) | 7-month change (p.p.) |
---|---|---|---|
Albuquerque | -23% | -34% | -11 |
Atlanta | -26% | -35% | -9 |
Austin | -32% | -38% | -6 |
Bakersfield | -31% | -35% | -4 |
Baltimore | -28% | -35% | -7 |
Boston | -33% | -47% | -14 |
Charlotte | -18% | -28% | -10 |
Chicago | -27% | -38% | -11 |
Cleveland | -26% | -34% | -8 |
Colorado Springs | -23% | -28% | -5 |
Columbus | -21% | -28% | -7 |
Dallas-Fort Worth | -21% | -28% | -7 |
Denver | -25% | -29% | -4 |
Detroit | -28% | -38% | -10 |
El Paso | -25% | -26% | -1 |
Fresno | -26% | -30% | -4 |
Honolulu | -41% | -25% | +16 |
Houston | -30% | -34% | -4 |
Indianapolis | -25% | -34% | -9 |
Jacksonville | -18% | -28% | -10 |
Kansas City | -15% | -26% | -11 |
Las Vegas | -22% | -30% | -8 |
Los Angeles | -27% | -34% | -7 |
Louisville | -23% | -35% | -12 |
Memphis | -21% | -24% | -3 |
Miami | -23% | -34% | -11 |
Milwaukee | -22% | -27% | -5 |
Minneapolis | -21% | -29% | -8 |
Nashville | -21% | -26% | -5 |
New Orleans | -45% | -39% | +6 |
New York City | -21% | -42% | -21 |
Oakland | -32% | -35% | -3 |
Oklahoma City | -26% | -35% | -9 |
Philadelphia | -24% | -31% | -7 |
Phoenix | -19% | -31% | -12 |
Portland | -34% | -36% | -2 |
Raleigh | -16% | -29% | -13 |
Sacramento | -33% | -34% | -1 |
Salt Lake City | -18% | -23% | -5 |
San Antonio | -34% | -40% | -6 |
San Diego | -28% | -38% | -10 |
San Francisco | -49% | -48% | +2 |
San Jose | -35% | -44% | -9 |
Seattle | -28% | -30% | -2 |
Tampa | -22% | -40% | -18 |
Tucson | -27% | -28% | -1 |
Tulsa | -23% | -32% | -9 |
Virginia Beach | - | -36% | 0 |
Washington DC | -37% | -47% | -10 |
Wichita | -15% | -28% | -13 |
Data as of Apr 23, 2021 and indexed to Jan 4-31, 2020.
On the flip side, Honolulu has seen the most improvement. As travel and tourism numbers into Hawaii have steadily risen up with lifted nationwide restrictions, there has been a 16 p.p. increase in open businesses compared to September 2020.
Road to a K-Shaped Recovery
As of April 25, 2021, nearly 42% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, even with this rapid vaccine rollout, various segments of the economy aren’t recovering at the same pace.
Take for instance the stark difference between professional services and the leisure and hospitality sector. Though small business revenues in both segments have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, the latter has much more catching up to do:
This uneven phenomena is known as a K-shaped recovery, where some industries see more improvement compared to others that stagnate in the aftermath of a recession.
The Entrepreneurial Spirit Endures
Despite these continued hardships, it appears that many Americans have not been deterred from starting their own businesses.
Many small businesses require an Employer Identification Number (EIN) which makes EIN applications a good proxy for business formation activity. Despite an initial dip in the early months of the pandemic, there has been a dramatic spike in EIN business applications.
Even in the face of a global pandemic, the perseverance of such metrics prove that the innovative American spirit is unwavering, and spells better days to come for small business recovery.
Technology
Ranked: America’s Largest Semiconductor Companies
This graphic visualizes the market capitalizations of America’s 15 largest semiconductor companies.

Ranking America’s Largest Semiconductor Companies
As our world moves further into an era of widespread digitization, few industries can be considered as important as semiconductors.
These components are found in almost everything we use on a daily basis, and the ability to produce them domestically has become a topic of national security. For example, in 2022 the Biden administration announced the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to strengthen America’s position in everything from clean energy to artificial intelligence.
With this in mind, we’ve ranked the top 15 U.S. semiconductor companies by their market capitalizations.
Data and Highlights
The data we used to create this infographic is listed in the table below. Year-to-date (YTD) returns were included for additional context. Both metrics are as of May 30, 2023.
Rank | Company | Ticker | Market Cap (USD billions) | YTD Return |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nvidia | NVDA | $992 | 180.2% |
2 | Broadcom | AVGO | $335 | 45.1% |
3 | AMD | AMD | $202 | 95.7% |
4 | Texas Instruments | TXN | $160 | 8.2% |
5 | Qualcomm | QCOM | $129 | 8.2% |
6 | Intel | INTC | $125 | 12.2% |
7 | Applied Materials | AMAT | $115 | 41.2% |
8 | Analog Devices | ADI | $89 | 9.2% |
9 | Lam Research | LRCX | $85 | 52.1% |
10 | Micron Technology | MU | $78 | 42.3% |
11 | Snyopsys | SNPS | $71 | 45.4% |
12 | KLA | KLAC | $63 | 21.8% |
13 | Marvell Technology Group | MRVL | $54 | 76.2% |
14 | Microchip Technology | MCHP | $42 | 11.2% |
15 | ON Semiconductor | ON | $36 | 36.3% |
At the top is Nvidia, which became America’s newest $1 trillion company on Tuesday, May 30th. Shares pulled back slightly over the day and Nvidia closed at $992 billion. Over the past decade, Nvidia has transformed from a gaming-focused graphics card producer to a global leader in AI and data center chips.
In third and sixth place are two of America’s most well known chipmakers, AMD and Intel. These longtime rivals are moving in opposite trajectories, with AMD shares climbing 770% over the past five years, and Intel shares falling 47%. One reason for this is the data center segment, in which AMD appears to be stealing market share from Intel.
Further down the list we see Applied Materials in seventh, and Lam Research in ninth. Both firms specialize in semiconductor manufacturing equipment and thus play an important role in the industry’s supply chain.
Trade War Impacts
As tensions between the U.S. and China escalate, chipmakers are becoming increasingly entangled in geopolitical conflict.
In October 2022, the Biden administration introduced new export controls aimed at blocking China’s access to semiconductors produced with U.S. equipment. This impacted several companies in our top 15 list, including Lam Research and Applied Materials.
Shortly after the export controls were announced, Lam Research said it expected to lose upwards of $2.5 billion in annual revenues.
We lost some very profitable customers in the China region, and that’s going to persist, obviously.
– Doug Bettinger, CFO, Lam Research
In response, China announced in May 2023 that it would no longer allow America’s largest memory chipmaker, Micron, to sell its products to “critical national infrastructure operators”.
This is not the first time Micron has been involved in a controversy with China. In 2018, the firm alleged that Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, a Chinese state-owned company, had solicited a Micron employee to steal specifications for memory chips. The U.S. Department of Commerce imposed export restrictions on Fujian Jinhua as a result.
Chipmakers on both sides of the Pacific will be closely watching as competition between these two countries heats up.
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