The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, in a recent report, calculated that the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) saved approximately 2.7 million jobs in New York City, Crain's New York Business reported.

Crain's quoted Jessica Walker, the chamber's president and CEO, who said that loan program, authorized by the 2020 Cares Act, "has been the single-biggest stabilizer for our city’s small businesses during the Covid crisis. Without it, we would have seen far more layoffs and business closures.”

Of the jobs saved, half were in Manhattan, 24 percent were in Brooklyn, 18 percent were in Queens, 6 percent were in the Bronx, and 3 percent were in Staten Island. The greatest share of jobs saved was in the food service industry, 393,000, followed by health care, 353,000; arts and entertainment 80,000; and real estate, 77,000.

Overall, there were 230,000 loans totaling $24.9 billion in the city, of which 81 percent went to businesses with fewer than 10 employees. The majority took loans during the first go-round of the program but did not take them in the second.

Despite this large number of saved jobs, the pandemic still took a gruesome toll on the city: Between February 2020 and February 2021, 635,000 jobs in the city could not be saved, and 42 percent of small businesses closed. The food service industry lost more than 190,000, of its workers. The arts, entertainment and recreation industries lost 47,000 jobs, and real estate lost 12,000..