Roughly 1 in 3 Pa. Businesses Closed Due To Gov't Mandate

Nearly one in three Pennsylvania businesses closed due to a government mandate, “substantially higher” than the U.S. private sector average, according to a new survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The 30.4 percent of Pennsylvania businesses that closed due to a government mandate is higher than New York (25.8 percent), New Jersey (22.4 percent), Ohio (19.5 percent), Maryland (18.6 percent), West Virginia (nearly 17.1 percent) and Delaware (about 16.3 percent). Nationally, South Dakota saw the fewest businesses close at 5.8 percent, while Puerto Rico saw the highest at slightly more than 50 percent.

Just about 15.3 percent of Keystone State businesses saw no effect on business operations because of the pandemic, which is “relatively similar” to the national average. The District of Columbia had the most companies with no impact at 25.9 percent, while Puerto Rico saw the lowest at 6.7 percent.

Nearly 56.1 percent of Pa. businesses saw a decrease in demand for products or services, which is on par with the national average of about 55.6 percent. South Dakota saw the lowest drop in demand for products or services at about 44.9 percent, while Illinois saw the highest at about 61.2 percent.

Conversely, 12.4 percent of Pennsylvania businesses saw an increase in demand for products or services. Nationwide, D.C. saw the smallest growth in demand for products or services at more than 8.6 percent.