The Paycheck Protection Program of loans to small businesses has safeguarded about 16 million jobs, or about 10% of the pre-pandemic U.S. labor force, according to a new analysis by Moody’s Analytics.
Moody’s Analytics economist Bernard Yaros says the program, which has seen more than $500 billion in forgivable loans approved to more than 4.5 million businesses, likely fueled the surprising gains seen in the government’s May labor market report, potentially contributing between 9.2 million and 10.9 million jobs. And the PPP gains could continue this month.
“A couple of million more jobs could show up in the June employment report thanks to residual PPP-induced rehiring,” Yaros said in a statement. “However, as small businesses that were the first to receive their loans in the first half of April exhaust their PPP funds by mid-June, as many as 4.5 million jobs that were rehired thanks to PPP could be at risk of layoffs.”
