Surging Post-Pandemic Entrepreneurship

A 2023 study conducted by economists from the University of Maryland and the Federal Reserve revealed a significant and potentially long-lasting increase in the number of Americans launching businesses during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. These new ventures cover a wide spectrum of industries, including restaurants, dry cleaning services, and high-tech start-ups.

Applications to start new U.S. businesses surged in 2024 with an average of 430,000 applications a month, 50 percent more than in 2019. The post-pandemic surge in new business creation can be attributed to the new norm of remote and hybrid work and a motivation for people to be their bosses. Though since the 1980s, start-up activity and employment have fallen and a handful of large firms have increasingly dominated the economy, these findings suggest that the pandemic may have reversed those trends.