Employer business startups contribute disproportionately to job creation, innovation, and productivity growth. This contribution is dynamic and complex involving much trial and error. Most startups fail or do not grow but a small fraction grow rapidly contributing substantially to economic performance. In the USA, there has been a decline in startup rate and the share of activity accounted for by young firms over the last couple of decades. This decline has accelerated and become pervasive in the post-2000 period even in innovative-intensive sectors. The flip side of this change is an accompanying increase in the share of activity accounted for by mega (10,000 +) firms in the post-2000 period. While both benign and adverse factors may underlie these structural changes, the post-2000 period has also exhibited a decline in productivity growth along with indicators of business dynamism. The global pandemic has had a major adverse impact on health, morbidity, daily life, and economic activity. However, there has been a surge in new business applications that may signal a turning point in entrepreneurial activity.

雇主创业公司对创造就业、创新和生产力增长的贡献不成比例。这种贡献是动态的和复杂的，涉及大量的反复试验。大多数初创公司失败或不增长，但一小部分快速增长，对经济绩效做出了重大贡献。在美国，在过去的几十年中，初创公司的启动率和年轻公司所占的活动份额有所下降。这种下降在 2000 年后加速并变得普遍，即使在创新密集型行业也是如此。这种变化的另一面是，2000 年后大型（10,000 多家）公司的活动份额随之增加。虽然良性和不利因素都可能是这些结构性变化的基础，2000 年之后的时期还表现出​​生产率增长和商业活力指标的下降。全球大流行对健康、发病率、日常生活和经济活动产生了重大不利影响。然而，新业务应用的激增可能预示着创业活动的转折点。