Weekly Rewind: Ann Arbor’s Business News Recap

A look back on this week’s economic development headlines, announcements, and other share-worthy news from the Ann Arbor region.

The 2020 Washtenaw County Economic Outlook
Ann Arbor SPARK’s Alex West, director of research is moderating the event which provides a local economic update from the University of Michigan Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics (RSQE).

This week EntryPoint released its survey of Washtenaw County businesses affected by COVID-19.
- More than 76 percent of companies in Washtenaw County have applied or intend to apply for loans to support their operations during and after the COVID-19 pandemic
- 74 percent of companies that applied for the Paycheck Protection Program Loan reported having been approved.
- The report showed disparities in minority-owned businesses (more on Crain’s).
- Nationally, there have been questions about the focus of PPP “Service industries, which accounted for an unprecedented 12.9 million jobs lost in April (62.9 percent of the 20.5 million), received just 36 percent of loans.”

MEDC offering a free procurement program to assist businesses in accessing non-medical grade Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to keep their employees and customers safe as they begin resuming in-person operations, as is required by Executive Order 2020-91. (MEDC)