Applications to start new businesses hit 5.4 million in 2021, a new record

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Juby George stands with his wife Shireen Bethala-George at the soft opening of Smell the Curry, a south Indian takeout and catering business at the Flourtown Farmers Market outside Philadelphia, on December 9, 2021. Andrea Hsu/NPR hide caption

Juby George stands with his wife Shireen Bethala-George at the soft opening of Smell the Curry, a south Indian takeout and catering business at the Flourtown Farmers Market outside Philadelphia, on December 9, 2021.

America's entrepreneurial spirit remains strong during the pandemic.

That's the takeaway from new numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Wednesday, which found that a whopping 5.4 million new business applications were filed in 2021, surpassing the record set in 2020 of 4.4 million.

While it's hard to say how many pandemic-era business applications will turn into real money-making ventures, the surge in entrepreneurship appears to be good news for the economy. Traditionally, startups have driven economic recovery and innovation. And with huge disruptions to the labor market and workplaces themselves, a reshuffling seems expected — even necessary.

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For comparison's sake, there was no such surge in new business applications following the Great Recession. In 2019, the year before the coronavirus disrupted life as we knew it, there were 3.5 million new business applications.

It's important to note that only about a third of the applications filed in 2021 are for businesses deemed likely to hire employees, according to the Census Bureau. Over the past two years, a number of people filing paperwork for new businesses lost their jobs in the pandemic and decided to become self-employed. Still, many others walked away from stable careers, convinced there was no better time to chase their dreams.

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Juby George, a software programmer for 21 years, had long thought about going into catering. The pandemic created an opening for him to ramp up what had been a side hustle and make it his full-time job. Andrea Hsu/NPR hide caption

Juby George, a software programmer for 21 years, had long thought about going into catering. The pandemic created an opening for him to ramp up what had been a side hustle and make it his full-time job.

Juby George, 44, is one of millions who joined the Great Resignation last year, leaving a two-decade-long career as a computer programmer, writing softwarefor a company that trains pharmaceutical reps.

"I loved my job. I also loved cooking," he says.

Decades earlier, his father got into catering as a side hustle in the greater Philadelphia region, where the family had settled after immigrating from India. George would help out with orders and became particularly skilled at chopping chickens, a task his sisters were happy to assign him.

Well before the pandemic, George had picked up where his father had left off, catering occasional meals for small gatherings. He and his wife, Shireen Bethala-George, offered cooking classes on the weekends.

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