Miami Jobs Benefit from SBA Partnership

A new partnership will ultimately help small businesses create more Miami jobs.

The U.S. Small Business Administration's district office in South Florida has partnered with the City of Miami to increase the access that local businesses have to helpful resources. Under the agreement, Miami will help market the SBA's development services and loan programs to the city's large small-business population.

That will include promotion of the Small Business Jobs Act recently signed into law by President Barack Obama. The law will provide up to $30 billion in capital for community banks to make small business loans, expand loan programs, and provide $12 billion in targeted tax breaks for small businesses.

As of October 4th, the SBA has approved financing for 59 small businesses in the Miami area, according to an article by the South Florida Business Journal.

With any luck, some additional funding would help small businesses hire more workers, which would provide a much-needed boost to the local economy.

During August, the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall area's unemployment rate increased from 13.3 percent to 14.4 percent, keeping it well above the national average at the time of 9.6 percent.

The Miami area had a total non-farm employment of 969,900 workers during August, which is up from 959,900 workers during July and only a .1 percent decrease from last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

During fiscal year 2010, the SBA approved 1,677 loans to small businesses in South Florida totaling more than $550.6 million, which is a 28 percent increase from the amount of loans approved during fiscal year 2009.

Of the loans approved last fiscal year, 332 went to small businesses in Miami-Dade County and totaled almost $112 million, which is a 23 percent increase from the amount of loans small businesses in the county received during the previous fiscal year.