Weather Losses Hit Accommodation and Food Service Almost Six Times as Often as Professional Services

A year of Census survey rounds, split by trade, shows the same trade near the top of the weather-loss table in every round — and one trade that swings from near the bottom to second.

The trades at the top, and how far apart they sit

Every two weeks the Census Bureau asks a large sample of employer businesses whether, in the last six months, they lost money because of an extreme weather event such as a hurricane, flood, drought or heat wave. Across all businesses the answer averaged 8.4% over the past year’s rounds. Split by trade, the range runs from 3.1% to 17.6%. Eight of the 16 trades sit above the all-business figure. At the top are accommodation and food services (17.6%) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (15.1%), followed by retail trade (11.6%). At the bottom are finance and insurance (3.4%) and professional, scientific and technical services (3.1%).

One trade sat in the top two for weather losses in every round. For a business in it, a weather loss is a recurring cost, not a stroke of bad luck.

The top and the bottom held in every round

Averages can hide a lot, so the ranking was checked round by round. Accommodation and food services was first in 12 of the 21 rounds and second in the other 9. Agriculture was in the top three in 16 rounds and retail in 11. Professional services was never higher than 14th. The gap at each end is wide: accommodation and food services’ lowest round, 8.2%, was above professional services’ highest, 6.5%. Two closer comparisons do not separate. Accommodation and food services and agriculture clear each other’s margin of error in only 4 of the 21 rounds, so they share the top. Finance and professional services separate in only 2, so they share the bottom. One caution: each round asks about the previous six months, so neighbouring rounds overlap and 21 rounds are not 21 separate pieces of evidence.

The trade that went from 13th to second

Health care and social assistance averaged 10.1% across the year, close to the middle. That average hides the widest swing of any trade except accommodation and food services. In the round collected in late November 2025 it reported 2.1%, 13th of 16. In the round collected in mid-February 2026 it reported 20.9%, second only to accommodation and food services, and it was second again in the round collected in early May. Other services (repair, personal care and the like) followed the same path, from 3.8% to 20.5%. Professional services rose too, from 1.1% to 6.1%, and stayed in the bottom three.

What to take from this if you run one of these businesses

If your trade sits at the top of this table, a weather loss is not a rare event to be surprised by. In accommodation and food services, roughly one business in six reported one in an average round, and in the worst round nearly one in three did. That is a planning number: it belongs in the cash reserve, the supplier list and the conversation with your insurer before the season that hits your trade, not after it. If you run a health care or personal-service business, the useful reading is the swing. A quiet autumn says little about February. If you run a professional firm, the risk in this table is low but not zero.

Four limits worth holding. The survey covers employer businesses, not one-person operations. It records that a business lost money to weather, not how much or why. The figures are estimates from a sample, and two trades are only treated as different here when the gap clears both margins of error. And because each round looks back six months, neighbouring rounds share most of their window.

Published by The Lonely Entrepreneur — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. lonelyentrepreneur.com

This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.