In the middle of last March, lots of Worcester County businesses were forced to close or at least quickly roll back or change operations. A year later, the economic hit is still profound.
Average daily small-business revenue in Worcester County was down 51% through Feb. 2 compared to the average daily in January 2020, which was before the coronavirus pandemic hit, according to Opportunity Insights, an economic activity tracker run by a consortium including Harvard University in Cambridge and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle.
That’s worse than during the height of the initial pandemic surge last spring in late April and May, and worse than in early- to mid-January, when local cases were at their highest level.
Local small business revenue reached its worst point last April when at one point business was down 59%. By late May, revenue had made a relative rebound to only a 33% drop, but even through last summer when coronavirus cases dwindled, revenue was down an average of roughly 40%, according to Opportunity Insights, which seasonally adjusts its numbers.
Worcester County is no outlier. Middlesex County small-business revenue remains down 54%, and Norfolk County by 46%. Suffolk County, which includes Boston, is down 53% and Massachusetts is down 48% in total.
