Omicron slowed Philadelphia’s economic recovery in December, new report shows

The omicron variant of the coronavirus slowed Philadelphia’s economic recovery in December, but the number of open storefront businesses continued to increase at the end of the year, according to a new report from the Center City District.

SEPTA ridership, parking volumes at off-street garages, and the number of nonresident workers who were downtown all modestly fell at year’s end, the nonprofit business improvement district reported Friday. That coincides with when COVID cases started to spike in mid-December and continued during the holidays. Cases began dropping in mid-January, the report noted.

Still, downtown residents, returning shoppers, and rebounding tourism helped existing and new retailers to operate. The Center City District surveys nearly 2,000 storefronts in the neighborhood, and as of December, nearly 80% were fully or “partially open,” such as restaurants providing only takeout or delivery services. Only 54% were open in mid-2020, and 70% were open in October 2020.

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The number of pedestrians in Center City steadily rose throughout 2021, averaging 267,829 per day, or about 62.5% of pre-pandemic levels, the report said.

The largest missing segment was office workers, who continued to work remotely, the report said.

“The faster workers return, the faster the recovery across all sectors,” Paul Levy, the president of the Center City District, wrote in an email.

Philadelphia added 3,900 jobs in December to reach 692,700. The city has slowly but steadily gained jobs since April 2020, when it reached a pandemic low of nearly 626,900 jobs. But the city still has 57,500 fewer jobs than in February 2020, before the pandemic swept the country.

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The city’s recovery has been slower than the greater region, other large urban counties, and the nation. Through December, the city had recovered 53% of the jobs lost between February and April 2020.

By contrast, the 11-county region has recovered 78% of its jobs, while the U.S. has restored 84% of the jobs lost.