Record Number of Small Businesses Started in NYC

NEW YORK, NY— The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) announced that New York City has more small businesses than ever recorded in city history at 183,000, and released a new report, NYC’s Small Business Recovery: Patterns of Growth in a Changing Economy. The report highlights key trends in small business growth and recovery across New York City since the start of the Adams Administration. This report comes as the city reaches a new private sector job high, with the lowest unemployment rate since August 2022 and the lowest Black unemployment rate since before the pandemic.

Key takeaways from the report include:

• New York City currently has more small businesses than ever recorded. As of 2023, there were 183,000 small businesses across the city, over 1,000 more than pre-pandemic levels.
• Entrepreneurship is thriving across the city. In the eight most recent quarters (Q4 2021 to Q3 2023), 62,000 small businesses were started, which is one in three of all small businesses currently operating in the city. This formation is significantly higher than the 52,000 businesses started in 2018 and 2019.
• While new business formation remains concentrated in central business districts, including Midtown Manhattan, net business growth has been strongest in the outer boroughs. North Brooklyn continues to lead the city’s small business recovery, adding 1,000 small businesses since 2019.
• Despite growth in the number of small businesses across the city, small business employment remains below pre-pandemic levels, in part due to an increase in sole proprietorships.

“We came into office with a clear mission to protect public safety, rebuild our economy, and make our city more livable for everyday New Yorkers—and nothing could be more central to all three than New York City’s world-renowned small business community,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “Now, with more small businesses than ever before in the city’s history, we’re seeing the direct impacts of changes we made early in this administration that made it easier to open and operate a small business in New York City. When small businesses thrive, we all thrive. We will continue to support the growth and development of the small businesses that give our city its character and drive our economy.”

and this report illustrates just that, while highlighting the evolution we have seen with our small businesses in a post-pandemic environment,” said NYCEDC President & CEO Andrew Kimball. “Hitting an all-time high for small businesses and seeing continued growth in the outer boroughs in particular, demonstrates the resiliency of New Yorkers and our entrepreneurial spirit. At EDC we will continue to work with our partners at the Small Business Services and across city government to continue to help foster the growth of small businesses throughout New York City.”