Looking back at what happened to the Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic. PPP is the most memorable program which helped a lot of small businesses stay afloat.
PPP is the most memorable program which helped a lot of small businesses stay afloat. (Photo: Metro Atlantic CEO)
What Happened to the Paycheck Protection Program Funds
The economic crisis caused by an unprecedented financial strain throughout America caused by the Covid-19 pandemic prompted the government to offer economic relief packages at every level, from stimulus checks for personal use to local fiscal recovery funds at the state level. Among all of these, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is one of the most memorable.
The government-led initiative allowed companies with fewer than 500 employees to apply for forgivable loans to help businesses stay alive. Having been forced to follow a number of guidelines many businesses were faced with a series of hard choices says Metro Atlanta CEO.
These choices led to laying off certain employees to meet payroll for others or closing their doors forever to avoid a very uncertain future. To help businesses keep functioning with less stress, PPP loans were intended to address this concern. It also became a great factor in retaining employees and boosting suffering local economies.
The PPP distributed $525 billion to small businesses in need from April 3, 2020, to August 8, 2020, and eventually distributed nearly $800 billion in loans by the time the program ended in mid-2021 during its first of three rounds. Many economists applauded the program for saving nearly 19 million jobs by December 2020, but there are still others who argue that the real number is much less and closer to between 1.4 and 3.2 million.
PPP is the most memorable program which helped a lot of small businesses stay afloat. (Photo: Metro Atlantic CEO)
Georgia Utilizing 24.9 Billion Paycheck Protection Program Funds
Here is a summary of the data for Georgia:
- Total PPP funds per capita: $2,303
- Total PPP funds: $24,875,148,013
- Median PPP loan amount: $20,208
- Share of approved PPP funds forgiven: 91.5%
- Industry sector with the most PPP funds: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- For reference, here are the statistics for the entire United States:
- Total PPP funds per capita: $2,388
- Total PPP funds: $792,611,806,528
- Median PPP loan amount: $20,689
- Share of approved PPP funds forgiven: 95.2%
- Industry sector with the most PPP funds: Construction
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