The COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll on small business employment.
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Six U.S. states have seen the number of employees returning to work at small businesses decline by at least 5% from June to July due to the resurgence of COVID-19, CNBC reported.
CNBC's data comes from Homebase, which showed that jobs recovery slowed and even reversed in some states due to the number of increased coronavirus cases.
“Areas that have seen a spike in coronavirus cases are seeing declines in business activities, although the declines are not as steep as during the first wave of cases,” Homebase's report noted, CNBC reported.
Florida, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are among the states that have seen declines in the number of employees since June, CNBC reported. Florida, Arizona and Texas have all had some of the highest increases in COVID-19 cases since they started reopening.
The network reported that California's employment numbers have stayed mostly flat for the last five weeks.
While Homebase's data is not completely indicative of the entire economy because it measures small- and medium-sized businesses, researchers with the Federal Reserve's St. Louis branch have said the data shows the promise of being similar to the overall labor market, CNBC reported.
Deutsche Bank stated in a note that if the data for the next month also slow significantly it would cause a major recovery problem, according to CNBC.
“While most forecasters likely anticipate the pace of labor improvement to slow somewhat from the heady progress in May and June, a more-severe slowing or even a reversal of recent labor gains could materially impact second half growth estimates,” the network reported the bank said.
CNBC reported that Congress currently is working on the second round of stimulus money, but that bill likely won't be passed until early August, according to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif).
