Despite Relief, Most Small Businesses Still Laid Off Staff This Year

The COVID-19 crisis has battered the U.S. economy on a whole, spurring a full-fledged recession. But while relief has been made available for small businesses -- those perhaps less equipped than larger businesses to weather the storm -- it also has not been enough to prevent those establishments from letting employees go.

Only 29% of small businesses have retained their entire staff throughout the pandemic, according to a new survey by OnPay, a payroll and HR software provider. Meanwhile, small businesses laid off or furloughed a median 27% of their workers, while 7% let their entire staff go.

All of the aforementioned job loss comes in spite of the Paycheck Protection Program, whose purpose was to prevent layoffs and help small businesses rehire staff. And despite outside reports that PPP loans did, in fact, prevent layoffs, it begs the question: Was that relief really enough? And what's going to happen now that so many of the businesses that received PPP loans have exhausted those funds?

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Source Fool.com