One-third of small businesses across the US say they won't reopen and 55% won't rehire the same workers they let go due to devastation of COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook survey finds

About a third of small businesses forced to close due to the coronavirus pandemic say they won't be able to reopen due to an inability to pay bills or rent, a Facebook survery has found. 

More than half of the business owners surveyed by Facebook have also said they don't expect to be able to rehire the same amount of workers that they employed prior to the pandemic. 

Facebook surveyed 86,000 small and medium-sized business owners, managers and employees for its State of Small Business report that was released on Monday as part of a data initiative with the World Bank and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. 

The report highlights the lasting impact the pandemic will have on smaller businesses despite the $660 billion in aid the government set aside to help. 

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Facebook surveyed 86,000 small and medium-sized business owners, managers and employees for its State of Small Business report that was released on Monday

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The findings from the survey show that 31 percent of small and medium sized businesses have been forced to close their doors in the past three months. 

Of the one-third that haven't yet been able to reopen, about 34 percent said it was because they couldn't afford to pay their rent or bills. 

About 44 percent of small business owners said they had to reduce the number of employees as a result of the pandemic and 22 percent had to fire more than 10 people. 

Only 45 percent of business owners said they would be able to rehire the same employees they had to let go or furlough when they reopen.  

The US economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April - the steepest plunge since the 1930s Great Depression - when the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7 percent. 

More than 40 percent of owners said they would have to use personal savings to reopen and rehire employees. 

Meanwhile, 30 percent of business owners and managers said they weren't yet sure where they would secure the money to reopen.  

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'Despite the 50 percent decline in sales, we still have to pay 100 percent of our fixed costs,' one business owner said in the Facebook report. 

'This is impossible. Rent was already high. Now it makes up 50 percent of our gross income.' 

The Paycheck Protection Program established by Congress in late March was aimed at helping businesses keep making payroll for eight weeks, despite orders to shutdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The eight-week period may be applied to any time frame from mid-February up to June 30. 

Senator Marco Rubio, the Republican chairman of the Senate's small business committee, said on Monday that lawmakers need to move fast to extend it with many businesses moving toward the end of their eight-week period.  

'The legislative fix needed to #PPP is extending beyond 8 weeks the time period a #SmallBusiness has to spend the funds on payroll. We are hoping to move quickly on this before the first wave of #PPP loan recipients reach the 8 week point,' Rubio wrote on Twitter.

While most states have begun to reopen their economies at least in part, some 36 million Americans - one in five in the workforce - have lost their jobs since the pandemic began.

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The US economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April - the steepest plunge since the 1930s Great Depression - when the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7 percent