On September 30, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center was quoted in the Washington Business Journal:
The D.C. Policy Center also tracked data from the Kauffman Foundation, which found in early 2021 that nonwhite and immigrant entrepreneurs with less than a high school degree were contributing to this trend. And about 30% of those new businesses founded nationwide in 2020 were created by someone who had been unemployed before. “Assuming D.C. follows national trends,” the report states, “it is expected that new businesses will stem from historically disadvantaged business owners that have been greatly impacted by the pandemic.”
Seventy-six percent of establishments in D.C. are small businesses with less than 500, and they account for 49% of its employment and 43% of its annual payroll. Even businesses under 50 employees count for one in five jobs in the District. So, it’s all the more important to find ways to keep them here, especially as remote work has proven its usefulness and “can’t be legislated away,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center.