More Than 5,000 SBA Jobs Act Loans Approved in First Month

Just one month after the President signed the Small Business Jobs Act, SBA has supported nearly $3 billion in loans to more than 5,000 small businesses across the country. That’s more than 5,000 small business owners who’ve felt first-hand, within one month, the impact this new law is having on our economy: from Peabody Engineering, a tank and fiberglass manufacturer in Southern California that is using a Jobs Act loan to hire 10 more workers, to Caudill Web Design here in our nation’s capital, who will use their Jobs Act loan to hire more programmers to meet increased demand.

So, how did we do it? With the Recovery Act, we learned that raising the guarantee and waiving the fees in SBA’s top two loan programs was a formula for success.  With the Recovery Act funding and extensions of funding from Congress, we turned just $680 million in taxpayer dollars into nearly $30 billion in lending support through our lending partners.

That’s a big bang for the taxpayer buck. The Jobs Act builds on that success by extending those same loan enhancements. 

This is a critical investment in America’s biggest job creators and in the strongest engine of economic recovery: entrepreneurs and small business owners. By unlocking loans for these small businesses, we are providing them with the tools they need to grow their business and create new jobs in their local communities.

In all, we estimate the $505 million provided in the Jobs Act for these loan enhancements will support about $14 billion in small business loans. That’s a $14-billion boost for America’s small businesses and just one of the reasons that the passage of this new law was a top priority for President Obama. The Jobs Act also includes $12 billion in tax credits targeted specifically to small businesses and a $30-billion lending fund that will help small, community banks increase their lending to local small business owners and entrepreneurs.

As the President has said, government can’t guarantee the success of a small business, but it can knock down some of the barriers that stand in the way and help create the conditions where small businesses can grow and hire. The Small Business Jobs Act is a critical tool to help us do just that, and we are already seeing its impact with the loans SBA approves every day.

Learn more facts about how small businesses are benefiting from the Small Business Jobs Act at www.sba.gov/jobsact.

Karen Mills is Administrator of the Small Business Administration