Small business is typically defined as a business with fewer than 500 employees. The PPP was created to help small businesses pay their employees for an 8-week period in April, May, or June. Many small businesses were not able to keep employees as there either wasn’t enough revenue to cover them or their businesses were considered non-essential and they could not work. Thus, the program’s rules that the headcount is based on pre-pandemic levels, many businesses may not meet the threshold for loan forgiveness if they do not have their workforce. California, Texas, New York and Florida have large numbers of persons employed by small businesses and as in every state, small business is critical to the economic well-being of the area.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/07/business/small-business-loans-coronavirus.html