From April 26 to June 6, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of business owners who have said that there has been a large negative effect has declined with 41.3 percent of respondents saying that there had been a large negative effect, and 43.3 percent saying they experienced a moderate negative effect.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Census Bureau has released weekly updates to a survey of businesses in the United States, in order to determine how the pandemic has affected the business community. The Small Business Pulse Survey offers high-frequency detailed information on business-specific initiatives. 

The Census Bureau believes this information will be useful to policymakers as they address challenges that small business owners are facing during the pandemic.  

This 41.4 percent figure represents a decline from the first week when the data was collected and released in late April, when 51.4 percent of the responding business owners said that the pandemic had a large negative effect on their businesses. Slightly fewer respondents that week said they had seen a moderate negative effect (38.5 percent that week compared to 43.3 percent overall).

From May 31 to June 6, in Washington D.C., 44 percent of responding business owners said their businesses had seen a large negative impact due to the pandemic.

The voluntary 16-question survey also has looked at how employee numbers and the revenue for businesses across the country have changed since the pandemic began. Both of these changes were negative, according to respondents.

The survey is given to non-farm single-location employer businesses with fewer than 500 employees and receipts of $1,000 or more throughout the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.  The Census Bureau used the respondents to the 2017 economic census as a subset of eligible businesses for this Small Business Pulse Survey and 1.7 million businesses were invited to participate.