Using data from the national 2024 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2023 Small Business Credit Survey, this brief summarizes responses from Pennsylvania. The survey finds that 55 percent of Pennsylvania small businesses said financial conditions were poor or fair in 2023. This is the third straight year that more than half of small businesses reported poor or fair financial conditions.
The 2023 survey of 534 Pennsylvania small businesses also finds that compared to 2022:
- fewer small businesses carried debt or applied for loans, lines of credit, or merchant cash advances.
- more small businesses said they experienced no change in revenues in the last 12 months. Fewer small businesses reported revenues increased or decreased.
- hiring or retaining qualified staff, reaching customers or growing sales, and supply chain issues remained the top operational challenges but were reported less frequently by small businesses.
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 2023 and reached more than 6,000 small employer firms nationwide.
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