The arrival of the omicron variant of the coronavirus in the U.S. has created a new wave of anxiety among many small business owners, according to a new survey released by Alignable.
What Happened: In a poll of 5,632 small business owners conducted between Dec. 4-7, 44% of respondents said they were afraid of omicron’s potential to negatively impact their recoveries.
Within specific sectors, small business owners in the travel and lodging field were most concerned, with 70% acknowledging agitation over omicron’s effects.
Other industries where small business owners were apprehensive about omicron included restaurant owners (69%), massage therapists (68%), event planners (67%), retailers (58%), gym owners/fitness experts (56%), automotive dealers and repair shops (56%), manufacturing (52%) and transportation (52%).
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What Else Happened: More than two out of three minority-owned businesses (69%) and more than half of women-owned businesses (52%) expressed fear omicron would stall whatever progress they’ve made to move beyond the pandemic, while only 40% of veteran-owned businesses shared that sentiment.
Regionally, the greatest levels of omicron-based worry occurred among small business owners based in Massachusetts (64%), New York (60%), New Jersey (57%) and Michigan (54%).
Still, not everyone is nervous. Alignable’s poll found 43% of small business owners stating they were not worried about omicron while 10% said they still did not know enough about it to determine if it was a threat and 3% claimed it could improve their business.
“In comments supporting these results,” said Chuck Casto, head of content marketing at Alignable, “many who are not concerned have all-digital businesses, or they say they’re ‘sick and tired of worrying about COVID.’”
Photo: PIRO4D / Pixabay
