Nearly $700 million went to Will County businesses through loan program

Thousands of businesses in Will County benefited from almost $700 million in loans from the federal program meant to save jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Almost 9,000 businesses received loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, according to a tally by the Will County Center for Economic Development. Those loans went to save about 87,000 jobs in Will County.

The PPP authorized billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Several applied for loans as the state implemented a stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Doug Pryor, the CED’s vice president of economic development, said he looked through loan data for Will County. He said he used conservative numbers in reporting the results, as there were limits on the data released, especially on larger loans, so his count is likely an underestimation.

Still, Pryor said, the data represented a big benefit for Will County.

“Those were really big numbers,” he said.

Will County accounted for about 4.5% of all PPP lending in Illinois and about 4% of jobs retained. Overall, businesses in Illinois received more than $22 billion in loans, which went to preserve more than 2 million jobs.

Construction businesses were the biggest beneficiaries in terms of dollar amount in Will County. That sector took in about $133 million, accounting for one-fifth of the total money in loans distributed in the county.

In terms of jobs retained, the accommodation and food services sector saw the most benefit. Loans to those businesses helped save about 12,000 jobs, according to the CED. The health care, social administration and construction industries were not far behind.

Overall, Pryor said he was pleased to see loans go to a diverse set of industries in Will County.

When Congress passed legislation that included billions of dollars in aid, Pryor said the goal was to “aggressively work to support the economy.”

“They accomplished that with these programs to a large extent,” he said.