By Forum Staff
Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Kevin D. Kim on Monday celebrated that New York City has set another all-time high for the total number of jobs ever in the its history, with 4,730,066 total jobs now in the Big Apple, according to new data released by the State Department of Labor.
Adams also announced progress on his “NYC Small Business Opportunity Fund.” Through the fund, SBS and partners have supported 1,046 businesses with loans totaling more than $85 million in affordable low-interest capital. The fund is the city’s largest-ever public-private partnership fund directed at small businesses.
“When we came into office, we had a clear mission: protect public safety, revitalize our economy as quickly as possible, and make our city more livable for everyday New Yorkers,” Adams said. “Today, our streets are safer, our sidewalks are cleaner, and we have more jobs than any time in our city’s history. This is what it looks like to stand with working New Yorkers, and to build a fairer economy. We will continue fight for a city where all New Yorkers share in our prosperity.”
One in seven small businesses have started since the start of the Adams administration, along with nearly 300,000 jobs being created. SBS’s Workforce1 Career Center system has also helped hire and place more than 44,000 New Yorkers in jobs during that same time period. According to the City Economic Development Corporation, since the first few months of 2022, small businesses with fewer than 50 employees have accounted for 45 percent of the City’s overall employment growth and have contributed more than $3.2 billion in direct economic output to the city.
The Small Business Opportunity Fund launched in January 2023 with $75 million committed by the city and partners, including Goldman Sachs and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, offering loans of up to $250,000 to eligible small businesses with a market-leading interest rate of four percent. The fund was designed to broaden access to capital for historically-underserved communities by removing barriers such as application fees and minimum credit scores. As a result, approximately 80 percent of the fund’s loans were awarded to minority- or women-owned businesses, including 69 percent to businesses owned by Black, indigenous, and people of color-owned firms, more than double the national average for Fiscal Year 2023. Additionally, 59 percent of loans were disbursed in low- to-medium income communities. Loans awarded from the fund averaged $80,000 and are being used by small business owners to refinance existing high-interest debt, expand into new storefronts, hire more New Yorkers, and fund other improvements to their enterprises.
Opportunity Fund recipients represent businesses from all five boroughs, including Green Tara Market in Woodside. Shahadev Khadka, owner of Green Tara Market, used his loan of $100,000 from Accompany Capital to expand the inventory at his supermarket. An immigrant from Nepal, Khadka successfully managed several stores before deciding to take the leap and open his first storefront in New York City.
More than 300 businesses in Queens received a total of $23 million in Opportunity Fund capital.
