A Rise In Startups During The 2020 Recession: An Exception

Americans have been slow to build new businesses in recent years. But that may be changing.

A new study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics reports the number of startups increased in the U.S. from 2019 to 2020, moving from 3.5 million to 4.4 million — a 24% increase.

Much of the increase in startups during the 2020 recession — as opposed to the one prior in 2008 — may be in part due to the trillions of dollars of government investment in households and businesses, according to the New York Times.

Most startups have been clustered in the retail sector, while total growth in new businesses are mostly stemming from states in the South, followed by the Northeast, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report.

Some of those startups include Osmind, which provides mental health services; Goody, a company that allows people to easily send gifts to their peers; and Rasgo, a platform that allows computer scientists to operationalize machine learning projects.