A review of the variances of the coronavirus pandemic show an uneven pattern in terms of economic impact across different sectors. For example, the IT industry has been found to be the most affected, leading the biggest increase in business ‘deaths’ compared to ‘births’ post-pandemic.
In contrast, the data shows the wholesale industry prospered, seeing a sharp decrease in business deaths compared to births from April 2020 onwards. The data gathered relates to the U.K. economy.
The study comes from a marketing training hub called the School of Marketing. The organisation analysed the latest government data on the number of businesses that were born and died in the last eight business quarters after the pandemic (from Q2 of 2020 to Q1 of 2022) and compared this with the eight quarters before the pandemic (from Q2 of 2018 to Q1 of 2020) to see how each industry has been affected in the last two years.
The information and communication industry was found to be the worst affected industry by the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, for every 100 businesses born in the industry, 91.51 businesses died. This number had increased by 89 percent post-pandemic with 173.24 business deaths for 100 new ones.
The full list is:
| Industry | Number of business deaths, for every 100 business births pre-pandemic (Q2 2018 – Q1 2020) | Number of business deaths, for every 100 business births post-pandemic (Q2 2020 – Q1 2022) | Post-pandemic change (lower is better) |
| Wholesale | 101.50 | 81.44 | -19.76% |
| Retail | 79.75 | 69.94 | -12.31% |
| Accommodation and food services | 90.37 | 80.51 | -10.90% |
| Motor trades | 94.84 | 86.37 | -8.93% |
| Health and social care | 100.53 | 94.62 | -5.87% |
| Education | 82.85 | 87.43 | 5.53% |
| Construction | 80.08 | 85.04 | 6.19% |
| Transportation and storage | 78.23 | 88.96 | 13.72% |
| Real estate | 60.08 | 69.22 | 15.22% |
| Production | 91.31 | 105.25 | 15.26% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 118.93 | 137.31 | 15.46% |
| Arts, entertainment, recreation and other services | 89.70 | 108.60 | 21.08% |
| Business administration and support services | 89.86 | 108.87 | 21.15% |
| Professional, scientific and technical activities | 97.60 | 142.41 | 45.91% |
| Finance and insurance | 48.01 | 71.95 | 49.86% |
| Information and communication | 91.51 | 173.24 | 89.31% |
| UK Total | 86.58 | 100.67 | 16.26% |
It was found that finance and insurance was the industry second-worst affected by the pandemic. Pre-pandemic there were roughly 48.01 business deaths for every 100 births. After this, this number had increased by 50 percent, with an average of 71.95 deaths for every 100 business births in the industry.
The wholesale industry prospered post-pandemic when compared with the others studied. Pre-pandemic, for every 100 wholesale businesses born, 101.5 businesses died. This result decreased by 20% post-pandemic, where in the last eight business quarters, only 81.44 businesses have died for every 100 wholesale businesses born. Businesses in retail were found to be the next most successful after the impact of the pandemic.
Commenting on the findings, Ritchie Mehta, CEO of School of Marketing explains to Digital Journal: “This data shows how much more difficult it has become to survive as a business since the pandemic. In the two years before the impact of COVID-19 on average more businesses were created than closed each quarter, but now the numbers of company births and deaths are basically equal.”
