The Seattle Times recently published an article based on US Census Data that concluded that there is optimism in Washington State small businesses and that over 50% of those small businesses believe the economy is going to return to normal within 6 months.

On the surface this seems like good news and for some business segments it is. However, when you take time to dig into the data a little more closely and examine business sector response you will see that the Retail Trade and Hospitality industry is suffering heavily as a result of the continued, mandated lockdowns enforced by Labor and Industries.

The sector data shows that retail and hospitality responded very differently to the survey and that 50% believe that it will be more than 6 months before they will see a return to normality and another 20% think 4 months or more. If you include businesses that responded that they think they won't recover or are already closed, its close to 62% overall. This response make sense given the lockdown restrictions they are under.

This business sector by far has suffered the most draconian lockdown restrictions and the survey data shows that by lifting the restrictions as soon as possible will return retail, restaurants, bowling alleys and hotels to a more profitable and positive outlook.

Source: US Census Data, March 28, 2021

This inconsistent application of lockdown rules highlights the problem when government starts picking winners and losers in business. Similar to the private vs public construction or new vs existing construction problems earlier in the year, either a business can operate safely or it cannot.

The state needs to stay out of picking which businesses can operate and which cannot and focus on providing guidelines on how to keep employees and customers safe.

The lockdown restrictions on Washington should be lifted and responsibility for employee and customer safety returned to the businesses. They can operate as long as they can show they can do safely limiting the spread of COVID-19.

This is the right approach to re-opening our state’s businesses safely.

For more on re-opening the economy from a medial perspective, see Dr Roger Starks latest article on the ‘The Medical Argument for Reopening the Economy’.