Clothing boutiques give way to restaurants. While the number of small businesses* increased slightly by 0.7% between 2013 and 2019, not all are in the same boat, reports a recent study by the Council for Economic Analysis (CAE), a group of economists charged with advising the Prime Minister. Minister. Because the dynamic is largely on the side of bars and restaurants: only the latter saw their number increase by 7.1% in the period. If we exclude them from the account, small businesses decreased by 1.9% in those years.
The dynamics are also far from homogeneous on French territory: small businesses are gaining ground on the outskirts of large cities, while abandoning the countryside. The number of small businesses fell 0.3% in urban centers and 1.4% in isolated towns. It also plummeted in rural municipalities (-5.1%) but rose strongly in the suburbs (+4.8%). “Only in the suburbs does the number of small businesses continue to grow faster than the population,” the CAE study details.
Note: a “central city” is a city around which an urban agglomeration of more than 2,000 inhabitants has developed, made up of several municipalities (the “suburbs” are the other municipalities in the agglomeration). If there is only one municipality in the urban agglomeration, we speak of an “isolated town”.
Sharp decline in rural areas
Once again, it is the restaurant sector that is driving all the growth. The number of bars and restaurants, alone, increases by 5.1% in isolated cities, 7.7% in central cities and even just over 10% in the periphery, while breakage is limited to -1% in rural areas, says the study. . If we exclude bars and restaurants, the number of small businesses only increased by 2.6% in the outskirts, and fell by 3.7% in isolated towns and 3.8% in central ones. And it plummets (-6.9%) in rural municipalities.
In addition, the study does not find any deterioration in the economic health of small businesses after the health crisis, highlighting the role of financial aid implemented by the State. According to the CAE, small businesses in a bad economic situation were proportionally fewer in April 2023 than in November 2019, and vice versa for those that were in a good economic situation. More unexpectedly, the financial situation of bakeries and pastry shops is “comparable” to that of other small businesses, despite the energy crisis.
*”Small commerce” includes the sale of merchandise in small shops located near places of life, but also craft shops (delicatessen, bakeries) and services (hairdressers), as well as bars and restaurants. That’s 1.824 million salaried jobs and 710,000 non-salaried jobs in 2019.
Source: BFM TV
