Roughly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, some businesses continued to battle the pandemic’s ongoing impacts, while others made progress toward recovery. Three briefs translate data from the Fed’s Small Business Credit Survey: 2022 Report on Employer Firms into bold infographics to paint a picture of small business conditions in the Third District.

These short, graphic reports focus on responses from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the overall Third District (including data from Delaware), respectively. They illustrate what firms in our region reported about:

  • their overall financial condition;
  • applying for financing; and
  • their top financial and operational challenges.

The briefs also make comparisons with how small businesses were faring in 2020 and 2019, before the pandemic.

The Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey is a national sample of small businesses, or firms with fewer than 500 employees, aimed at providing insight into firms’ financing and debt needs and experiences. The Fed conducted its survey from September through November 2021, with 10,914 responses nationwide.