Jeff Fuentes Gleghorn 

New business applications have been lower in 2022 than they were in the past two years, but remain significantly higher than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Business formation had been steadily declining before the pandemic began, and dipped further in the first three months of the pandemic before spiking to an all-time high in July of 2020. Both 2020 and 2021 set records for the number of new business applications.

According to business application statistics collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Pennsylvanians submitted more than 11,000 new business applications in October 2022. That is about 1,000 less than October of last year, but over 2,000 more than there were in October 2019. Jason Brown, Vice President of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, suggested in 2020 that “If permanent, an increase in the rate of business formation could have implications for the shape of the recovery as well as future innovation and productivity growth in the U.S. economy.”

As previously reported, new businesses in the Commonwealth will also get a boost from President Biden’s infrastructure bill, which is expected to provide Pennsylvania with an additional $18 billion in funding over the next 5 years. The money will help to repair roads, bridges, and other transportation projects, build out high speed internet, and ensure that clean, lead-free drinking water is available to everyone in the state. Earlier this year Governor Wolf said that the infrastructure bill would “support economic growth throughout the commonwealth, and provide stable, good-paying jobs for Pennsylvanians.”