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US businesses are feeling less impacted by COVID-19 now than last week

Amit Sahni Senior Consultant, Americas 30/04/2020

US weekly business tracker: April 30th 2020

While the overall impact of coronavirus on US businesses remains less than positive, the rate of decline has started to tail off

Despite the positive uplift, US businesses are still cautious

The number of businesses who have reported a dip in revenues has dropped (by 5%) to 52% this week compared with 57% the week prior.

In more good news, the number of businesses who have reported a decline in the number of projects they are working on has dropped to below half (49%), down from 55% in the week prior. Crucially, the number of those who have reported a dip in revenue leads has also lowered to 48% (down from 52% last week).

At the five-week mark, US professionals are expecting the impact on their business to last longer than originally suspected. Compared to previous estimations of approximately half a year, coronavirus is now expected to disrupt US businesses with an average impact lasting for the next seven months.

Treading the path to recovery

Despite the positive uplift, US businesses are still cautious. The number of companies opting to introduce salary cuts in order to mitigate financial risk has jumped up by 10% since last week, from 27% to 37%.

However, with work streams slowly getting back on track, an increase in the need for manpower may be part of the reason that some businesses have stopped implementing a reduced number of work days policy. The data shows that compared to last week’s 43%, just 39% are now asking this of their employees.

Many celebrities, influencers and experts have been taking to social media to express the importance of looking after your physical and mental health during this time. It seems US businesses are listening now more than ever, with the number of those offering support to their employees continuing to rise. Compared to last week, more businesses are offering online workouts and yoga subscriptions (up 5%), flexible working policies (up 1%), and learning and training opportunities (up 2%) for their staff.

Naturally, the longer we are in the crisis, the longer US professionals expect work from home policies to last. The number of US business currently adopting some form of working from home has stayed steady at 92%, with six in ten (62%) expecting a shift in favor of WFH once the pandemic is over.

Savanta’s US weekly business tracker measures the business impact of COVID-19 among decision makers within organizations of all sizes and industries. It tracks the perceptions on the economy overall as well as organization specific impacts including sales, employee outlook, productivity and performance.

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