Black-owned businesses are a small share of overall business, but are most likely to be in industries impacted by COVID-19 shutdowns: Shares of firm ownership by industry

Industry distribution of employer firms Black-owned White-owned 
All firms 9.4% 78.0%
Other services (except public admin.) 25.1% 11.1%
Health care and social assistance 19.1% 7.7%
Retail trade 6.2% 9.4%
Arts, entertainment, and recreation  4.8% 5.1%
Accommodation and food services 2.3% 2.6%
Admin./support/waste mgmt./ remediation srvcs. 11.4% 8.0%
Professional, scientific, and technical services 8.0% 15.4%
Transportation and warehousing 7.1% 3.9%
Construction 5.3% 11.8%
Real estate 3.0% 10.7%
Educational services 2.6% 2.4%
Finance 1.7% 3.8%
Information 1.1% 1.5%
Manufacturing 0.9% 2.3%
Wholesale trade 0.9% 2.7%

Notes: †Indicates the three industries that saw the largest declines in payroll employment in April 2020. *Indicates the three industries that saw the largest percent change declines in payroll employment in April 2020. Totals may not sum to 100%. Industries making up less than 1% of total share (agriculture, mining, utilities, management of companies and enterprises) are omitted.

Source: Authors’ analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, Survey of Business Owners (2012).

View the underlying data on epi.org.