Despite 2020 being one of the most tumultuous economic years in American history, the nation’s business community is showing its resiliency as we look toward the future and work toward a post-pandemic economic recovery.

The U.S. Chamber offered this message of resiliency when presenting its “State of American Business” report. A study they released showed this resiliency through the way many businesses bounced back in the third quarter of the year, despite the largest quarterly contraction on record in the second quarter of 2020, growth rebounded in the third quarter by more than 33 percent. According to the study, numbers for the fourth quarter are expected to show moderate growth due to reduced economic activity – a trend that is expected to continue in 2021 until vaccines are widely distributed.

Of course, the report also describes the troubling reality that many businesses continue to struggle and some cannot operate fully, or even at all, while the virus continues. A breakdown of 37 business industry perspectives shows  there is a fairly uniform split between industries that are doing well and those that are not – with 19 saying they are doing slightly or much worse than pre-pandemic, 15 slightly or much better, and three the same.

The U.S. Chamber has also pledged its commitment to work with elected officials at the federal level to get vaccines distributed and administered; rebuild the nation’s infrastructure with a focus on roads and bridges, critical networks and the expansion of broadband technology (through a new “Build by the Fourth of July” initiative on which the PA Chamber has signed on as a partner); workforce development; tackling systemic inequalities in education, employment, entrepreneurship and the criminal justice system; and boosting our cybersecurity networks. Many of these goals mirror what the PA Chamber is dedicated to accomplishing through our multi-year “Bringing PA Back” initiative.