Survey: Montana small businesses not very ‘pandemic-proof’

Montana’s small businesses may be in worse shape than their counterparts in almost every other U.S. state, according to a new study released this month.

Personal finance website WalletHub evaluated each state and the District of Columbia to create a ranking of how “pandemic-proof” small businesses are in every state. Out of the 50 states and D.C., Montana placed 49, the third-lowest spot on the list.

Only Hawaii and Nevada ranked lower on resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pennsylvania took the top spot in the survey, released April 12.

WalletHub used a multi-pronged system to determine the placement of individual states. The three overarching criteria considered were: “impact and access to resources,” “small business financial conditions” and “business environment and workforce support.”

Under these categories, researchers looked at the industries representing most small businesses in each state and how vulnerable those industries are to challenges brought on by the pandemic. They also measured factors like the share of businesses receiving Small Business Administration loans and states whose unemployment claims are recovering the quickest.

WalletHub surveyors weighted each metric to determine overall scores for each state.

Montana received a total score of 48.15. Pennsylvania, the highest-ranked state on the list, scored 74.93. Nevada, in last place, had a score of 33.21.

The full details of the survey are available at https://wallethub.com/edu/states-small-businesses-covid/72977.