Restaurants Hardest Hit; Closures Rise During Pandemic: Yelp

(RTTNews) - Yelp released its latest Economic Impact Report, which shows that business closures across the U.S. are increasing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Yelp closure data shows that businesses providing home, local and professional services have been able to withstand the effects of the pandemic particularly well. However, restaurants and retail continue to struggle and total closures nationwide have started to increase.

According to the report, the closures that have become permanent has steadily increased throughout the past six months, now reaching 97,966, representing 60% of closed businesses that won't be reopening.

As of August 31, 163,735 businesses have indicated on Yelp that they have closed, which is down from the 180,000 that closed at the very beginning of the pandemic. But, its represents a 23% increase in the number of closures since mid-July.

In order to gather closure data, Yelp monitors changes in business hours or descriptions on its app. Yelp's report uses March 1 as the starting point for the pandemic and count U.S. businesses that were open on that date.