Nearly 2,000 business owners in the East Bay region responded to our East Bay Business Recovery Survey between mid-April and early May, where they weighed in on the impacts of the pandemic on their operations. Their responses underscored the breadth, depth, and severity of its impacts.

The impacts of COVID-19 are particularly acute for local-serving industries such as food and beverage, hospitality/leisure/entertainment, retail, and personal services. Nearly 40% of businesses had temporarily closed, and those that w ere able to remain open experienced significant drops in revenue, compelling many to lay off workers and take other difficult actions to try and survive.

With the nation’s unemployment rate having skyrocketed from record low levels to more than 14% in a matter of two months, we know that the road ahead is going to be a difficult one for our region’s businesses and residents alike. East Bay businesses reported laying off more than 25,000 workers during the months of March and April based upon WARN notices filed with the State of California, layoffs that are additional to those reported by the businesses responding to our survey.

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, East Bay EDA has been serving as a resource to support economic relief and recovery as our region continues to grapple with the unfolding impacts on our business community. See the survey results.