It's actually about evenly split, small businesses account for just about half of economic output and jobs in the U.S. This is a very different economic stress than what we've seen in the past in that certain segments are being utter decimated, small business or large, while others are entirely unaffected. Folks I know in the travel and restaurant space are getting killed, I feel horrible for them and frankly don't know how many of them have managed to hang on as long as they have. On the other hand, my company in the energy space is entirely unaffected, as are other CEOs in the IT, B2B, and professional service space. In fact many of us are having our best years ever even if we're not connected to any COVID related economic activity at all.
I am very surprised there hasn't been a flow-down impact on the rest of us from them from a loss of confidence at least. I've been expecting it since March but just haven't seen it yet. The only thing I can come up with is that the sectors impacted are predominantly staffed by those on the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder and the they're so isolated from the rest of us that their plight doesn't register in the confidence of the rest of the country. It does seem like it's only a matter of time before it just has to have an impact. I'm hoping that we get something like a post-war bump from everyone wanting to eat out and travel as much as possible once a vaccine is distributed and that those businesses can hang on long enough to see that bounce.