Yelp is using its data to evaluate the American economy — and it says these businesses are in a slump

Mic Smith/AP

Businesses across the United States might be stuck in the middle of a slump.
That’s according to data that Yelp compiled based on store openings and closings and the preferences of its millions of users.
The Yelp Economic Average found that gas stations proved to be the one major exception to the trend.

The state of business in the US isn’t just about the stock market or GDP.

That’s the impetus behind Yelp’s latest creation, the Yelp Economic Average. The YEA digs deeper into how different types of companies are doing throughout the country. To compile its findings, Yelp drew on data from its 34 million monthly app users and its 75 million monthly mobile web users.

The Yelp Economic Average also takes into account seasonal fluctuations, business openings and closings, and consumer demand on Yelp. Consumer demand takes into account Yelp user engagement with different businesses, like page views, searches, ratings and reviews, and check-ins.

As a benchmark, the last quarter of 2016 was assigned a score of 100. Overall, the third quarter of 2018 received a score of 100.7 from Yelp, while the fourth quarter saw a drop down to 98.5.

The numbers show that, aside from gas stations, many kinds of businesses may have fallen into a bit of a slump in 2018.

Here’s a look at how different kinds of businesses did throughout the country: