How did Covid affect businesses?

COVID's effect on NYC businesses

We all know that businesses in NYC have been affected by COVID. The question is to what extent? NYC is supposed to be a thriving city. New businesses represent who are taking risks and being a productive members in society by providing services.

The data I used is updated daily and is found here:
https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Business/Legally-Operating-Businesses/w7w3-xahh

Here is what I found:



The number of licenses significantly dropped after 2018We see that the number of new business licenses created is lower than even that during the crisis in 2001.

In the last 5 years from 2017 to 2021, we see that the numbers fell dramatically14,000 usual business license creations declined about 71% to roughly 4000 business licenses in 2020. 2021 showed a small uptick but still a very significant decline.