March 17, 2021—New Yelp data shows nearly 500,000 businesses have opened since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic one year ago Thursday, CNBC reported.
Between March 11, 2020 and March 1, 2021, Yelp has seen more than 487,500 new businesses listing on its platform in the United States. The finding is an optimistic sign about the state of the U.S. economic recovery. Still, it is down 14 percent compared with the year-ago period.
Of the almost half million new businesses that have opened, about 59 percent were within the “professional, local, home and auto” category on Yelp.
“The number of new business openings — particularly the high number of new home, local, professional and auto services businesses — also shows great potential for those industries in the future,” Justin Norman, vice president of data science at Yelp, told the publication.
