I was “retired” from my job as a legal secretary when Covid hit. I was a certified personal fitness trainer on the side. When my office laid off most of us, I picked up my training business and I drive for Doordash. I’m a much happier person.
I think that is probably what is happening in that business district. A lot of people probably either retired during covid or decided to work for themselves.
My son wrote a paper on the labor force for his economics class last year - he was looking at at the large baby boomer population in or near retirement and how there was a much smaller population of younger workers coming up with people having less kids. No doubt, covid bumped those retirement numbers up a lot. The mandates will make it even higher I bet.