Revenue for New Zealand small businesses plummeted 34 per cent under the Covid-19 crunch, with around 24,000 jobs lost, new research has found.
The analysis was published by Xero today.
Craig Hudson, the Xero's managing director for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, says things "really went off a cliff" into April.
"We'd like to think the majority of people know that small businesses have been impacted hugely by the Covid situation and then the subsequent lockdown, but seeing it in that graph and actual hard data ... it's actually incredibly confronting," he told TVNZ 1's Breakfast this morning.
The number of jobs dropped by 4 per cent, most of them in March - around 24,000 employees.
However Mr Hudson says after the initial drop in employment in March, things stayed steady through April.
"Those are livelihoods where people are trying to put food on the table for their families, and now what?" he says.
"If you're gonna put a little bit of a positive spin on where we're at, is that the wage subsidy couldn't have come fast enough."
Auckland was worst hit, losing 5.7 per cent of jobs, which Mr Hudson says is a "massive" drop.
"It was a little bit up and down depending on the regions, but you can pretty much say that every corner of New Zealand, every industry, within small business has been impacted by this," he says.
"And some, catastrophic of course with job losses and some business closures."
To help get small businesses back on their feet, Mr Hudson is joining the call for Kiwis to explore their own backyard.
It would help support small and regional businesses, he says.
"We have a massive opportunity to make such a difference to so many livelihoods across the whole small business community."
He's also calling for bigger businesses to "step up" and help where they can, such as paying their bills faster to support the smaller companies.
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