Kent economists have been measuring new businesses registered in the UK over the year, this commemorative film charts their results over the three lockdowns.
Today is the first anniversary of lockdown in the UK.
How did it effect Business Creation? Did the initial shock persist? Which sector saw the biggest change? How have businesses adapted to the pandemic?
Economists at Kent have been regularly measuring the monthly changes to the amount of businesses starting during the year, work headed up by a team at Maghic, headed up by Dr Anthony Savagar, along with Dr Alfred Duncan and Professor Miguel Leon Ledesma and Postdoctoral Research Associate Yannis Galanakis, with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.
“Our project on firm creation has been documenting the economic impact of COVID-19 for nearly a year.” Savagar explained “The most striking observation is that for most of the last year firm creation has been in overdrive -far higher than we would usually observe. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is driven by a restructuring of the economy towards covid-friendly industries such as retail sales via the internet. We are now moving towards the economic recovery stage of the crisis, and we will continue to present real-time data analysis to aid policymakers and inform the public.”
Galanakis has made this film based on the latest report, March, in commemoration.
All data and further interactive analysis can be accessed on the project website