SBA marks closure of historic $798B Paycheck Protection Program
Photo | Grant Welker
A Panera Bread on Gold Star Boulevard in Worcester. The location's franchisee, PR Restaurants of Framingham, received $10 million in Paycheck Protection Program funding, the maximum amount.
As the United States trepidatiously moves toward normalcy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Small Business Administration on Tuesday marked the closure of the Paycheck Protection Program, which provided more than $798 billion in assistance to small businesses and nonprofits around the country during an uncertain time in the national economy.
“I’ve heard story after story from small business owners across the country about how PPP funds helped them keep the lights on, pay their employees -- and gave them hope,” said SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, in a statement.
Through July, after the first round of PPP funding had been spent, Central Massachusetts businesses received about 18,000 loans from PPP, which was estimated by the SBA to have saved 148,000 jobs in the region. Loans could range up to $10 million, and 346 businesses in Central Massachusetts, including Assumption University, Methods Machine Tools, and Quiet Logistics, received more than $5 million.
Guzman, whose office took over the Trump-era program in January, when President Joe Biden assumed office, said in the statement that 96% of 2021 PPP loans went to small businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
The average loan since the Biden Administration took over was $42,000.
The mostly-forgivable PPP program was first established at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. In 2020, the program provided $525 billion to small businesses and supported 51 million jobs, according to the SBA.
The second round of PPP funding began in January, with an additional $284 billion earmarked to support lending.
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