Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)

Oil, manufactur­ing had best luck with relief loans

- By Mike Schneider

Almost 75% of small businesses applied for help from a federal loan program designed to keep workers employed during the coronaviru­s pandemic, but only 38% of small businesses received any money, according to results from a U.S. Census Bureau survey released Thursday.

Oil extraction and mining businesses had the best success in getting loans from the Paycheck Protection Program with more than half of businesses surveyed in that sector reporting getting some help, according to the Census Bureau’s Small Business Pulse Survey.

Just under half of small businesses in manufactur­ing and about 45% of small businesses in accommodat­ions and food services reported receiving loans, the survey said.

Utilities fared the worst of all sectors with less than a quarter of small businesses in that sector getting loans, according to the survey.

The Paycheck Protection Program administer­ed by the Small Business Administra­tion has dispensed more than $530 billion in low-cost loans to millions of small businesses to cushion them from the sharp downturn induced by the coronaviru­s.

The Census Bureau survey showed that nearly two-thirds of small businesses in Arkansas, Maine and Oklahoma, had received loans, among the highest in the nation. Trailing the rest of the nation was California, where just over a fifth of small businesses received the emergency loans.

When asked about the disparitie­s in an email, SBA press director Carol Wilkerson said the agency didn’t have a comment to provide.

The Census Bureau launched the Small Business Pulse Survey last month in order to capture the impact of the pandemic on small businesses in near real-time. The release on Thursday was the first of what will be weekly updates. The initial survey was sent to 100,915 small businesses, and 22,449 small businesses responded from April 26 to May 2.

Almost three-quarters of the small businesses surveyed said they had experience­d a drop in revenue, and more than a quarter said they had decreased the size of their workforce. More than 11% of the small businesses reported missing a loan payment, but that rose to 30% for small businesses in accommodat­ions and food services, according to the survey.

 ?? DAVID J. PHILLIP — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Like in other cities, the coronaviru­s has shut down much of Houston’s economic activity, while at the same time, the price of oil plunged below zero recently as demand plummeted due to the worldwide lockdown to stop the spread of the virus. This one-two punch from COVID-19will make it much harder for Houston to recover from a looming recession, according to economists.
DAVID J. PHILLIP — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Like in other cities, the coronaviru­s has shut down much of Houston’s economic activity, while at the same time, the price of oil plunged below zero recently as demand plummeted due to the worldwide lockdown to stop the spread of the virus. This one-two punch from COVID-19will make it much harder for Houston to recover from a looming recession, according to economists.

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