Pew Dashboard Tracks Philadelphia's Economic Recovery and Growth in the Age of COVID

Editor’s note: The final update to this dashboard was Aug. 4, 2023. This is no longer being updated. On Nov. 7, 2022, the Business Sales by Sector chart was added and the Small Business Sales Revenue chart was removed, because data for the latter is no longer available. On Oct. 5, 2022, the Wages by Sector chart was changed to show the average hourly wage instead of total wages, and the Consumer Spending at Small Businesses chart was removed because its data is no longer available. In January 2022, the Wages by Sector chart was corrected to display each quarter’s value compared with the corresponding quarter of 2019. And in December 2021, the Delinquency on Bills chart’s filter function was repaired.

Philadelphia’s recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is a complicated and high-stakes journey for its residents, workers, employers, and policymakers. The city’s progress, including any growth, can be tracked by the ever-changing health of its businesses, the jobs they offer, the wages they pay, and what their customers spend. This dashboard provides nine charts on local businesses and jobs at each quarter or month, starting before the pandemic-driven shutdowns in March 2020 and continuing to the present. They are assembled from various data sources and will be updated quarterly. The dashboard also includes two other charts for reference: profiles of the businesses and populations in each ZIP code area before the pandemic.

Using the dashboard

Use one or more of the four filters below to select businesses for viewing. Some filter combinations lack enough data to be displayed.

Please pay close attention to the data time frames, which vary from chart to chart and may not be comparable.

Maps can be enlarged by clicking the + symbol.

Additional details on how to use the filters and interpret the charts, including a glossary of terms, are available below the interactive. The full methodology (PDF) is available as a separate document.

How to use filters and interpret the charts

This dashboard provides four filter options that enable you to select the types and locations of businesses to be displayed. Within each filter, choose any combination of data from the drop-down menu. Then click “Submit” at the bottom of the drop-down menu, which will change all of the charts to match your selection(s). You can apply multiple filters at the same time, for a finer-grained analysis. If your filter selections result in fewer than 20 establishments (Pew’s threshold for confidentiality and accuracy purposes), the chart(s) will be grayed out and a message will be displayed saying your choice is not filterable.

Filter descriptions

• Industry You can choose one, several, or all sectors at the North American Industry Classification System two-digit sector level, or select a super-sector. Sector data is available for most of the charts but covers just financially trackable businesses with a reported sector.
• Business size Based on the number of employees at firms’ Philadelphia locations, you can choose one or more categories: micro (one to nine employees), small (10 to 99), midsize (100 to 499), and large (500+). Data is available only for business indicator charts and covers just financially trackable businesses with a reported size.
• Location Select one or more ZIP code locations of business establishments. Data is available only for business indicator charts and covers just financially trackable businesses with a reported ZIP code.
• Gender This selection—male, female, or all—is based on the name of the first person listed among company leaders in the Experian database, most often owners or top executives. Experian makes the designation using traditional male or female names and leaves it blank where the name is missing or could be interpreted as either male or female. Experian does not include other gender options. Data is available only for Delinquency on Bills, Financial Stability, and Balance on Credit Account charts and covers just financially trackable businesses with a gender designation.

When you select a filter, all of the charts will change to show only the data for businesses fitting that selection. For example, if the “Industry” filter is changed to “Accommodations and Food,” all of the charts will display data solely for hotels, restaurants, bars, and similar types of businesses in that sector. Users can change more than one filter at a time. For example, if the “Industry” filter is set to “Accommodations and Food” and the “Location” filter is set to 19146, the charts will show only data for hotels and restaurants in the ZIP code 19146, as long as there are enough such businesses to meet the 20-establishment threshold.

Data on the race and ethnicity of business owners and top executives is not available at this time, but users can view pre-pandemic data on business owners’ race and ethnicity in the “Pre-Pandemic City and ZIP Code Area Profiles” section.

How to interpret the charts

Users can find a description of the relevant data below each chart. Users should pay close attention to the charts’ timelines because of differing sources and intervals between data releases for each indicator. Also, users should be aware that the business-indicator charts on delinquency, credit balance, and financial stability do not include many Philadelphia businesses that lack trackable financial activity, including many owned by people of color and personal businesses without employees. Each of these charts displays the number of establishments (N) that result from your selection.

For the most complete picture of the health of the city’s businesses, we advise users to consider data from multiple indicators collectively, not just one at a time, such as viewing trends in bill payments along with those in total wages and jobs to understand business conditions in a sector. Also bear in mind major factors not shown, such as the distribution of pandemic relief funds and seasonal changes in employment and business activity.

Glossary

• Business size In most charts, “micro” is defined as one to nine employees, “small” as 10 to 99, “midsize” as 100 to 499, and “large” as 500 or more, based on employee counts at business locations in Philadelphia. One exception is the Jobs by Establishment Size chart, which defines “small” as one to 49, “midsize” as 50 to 499, and omits “micro,” because its data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics only provides those size categories.
• Creditor A company to which another company owes money. The creditor may be a financial services company providing a credit card, a bank providing a mortgage, a wholesaler supplying goods to be paid for later, or a construction firm building a facility to be paid upon completion. In this dashboard, landlords are excluded from creditors.
• Credit account The account(s) listing the amount a company owes to its creditor(s) and its due date.
• Establishment A single physical location or worksite where payroll employees on staff conduct business or perform services. It may be part of a larger company or firm, along with other establishments, or it may constitute the entire company itself.
• Firm or Employer firm A company with employees on payroll at one or more establishments in one or more locations, also known as a parent company or multisite corporate headquarters. Firms may be for-profit or nonprofit, although data was not available to distinguish between them in this dashboard.
• Inflation adjusted Inflation is the general upward movement over time in prices and wages. Adjusting those amounts, statistically, makes them comparable across time periods.
• Nonemployer firm A business entity with no employees on payroll, such as holding companies, partnerships, and freelance “gig” businesses. In the dashboard, the business indicator charts count both nonemployer and employer firms. Most of the other charts, including jobs and wages, count just employer firms.
• Nonfarm Businesses or jobs at businesses of all industry types other than farms, as defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The category also excludes all government enterprises and what the BLS defines as nonprofit organizations serving individuals.
• Seasonally adjusted Many types of business and employment activities rise and fall predictably according to seasons, holidays, or school schedules, such as retail jobs during holiday-shopping season, or home sales in springtime. Seasonal adjustment removes those fluctuations statistically, to enable clearer comparison across time periods.
• Self-employed worker Individuals age 16 and older working in an incorporated or unincorporated business that they own or in which they have an ownership stake. The self-employment percentage is considered an approximation of small-business ownership in an area compared to another, but it should not be considered an absolute or full count of small businesses.
• Worksite Same as establishment, a physical location where payroll employees on staff conduct business or perform services. It may be part of a larger company or firm, along with other establishments, or it may constitute the entire company itself.