Derived table · Paycheck Protection Program

PPP loans in gig and solo-work industries, 2020 and 2021

Name: PPP loans in gig and solo-work industries, 2020 and 2021
Creator: Pandemic Darlings
Published: 2026-10-15

Taxi and limousine service, NAICS 485310, went from 16,593 PPP loans in 2020 to 234,254 in 2021. This table puts that jump beside 35 other industry codes, from couriers and truckers to beauty salons, with landlords, hotels and farms for comparison, and profiles each code's 2021 loans.

Rows36

Columns12

Files1 · 4 KB

FormatCSV

Source vintageSBA PPP FOIA 2024-09-30

Published byPandemic Darlings

Acquired / built2026-10-15

Built fromSBA PPP FOIA loan-level files

SHA-2562e13303e22117da3c36dd4c2e2b5b5a4b3e50600c70d60191b8d49362e8bb21b

RightsDerived from U.S. government public data; attribution to Pandemic Darlings requested.

Dictionarydictionary.csv

Download CSV 4 KB Data dictionary CSV At a glance Preview Columns How to use Before you quote a row

At a glance

Measured on the file on 2026-10-15; the checksum above is the file these numbers describe.

Rows36

Columns12

Keynaics · unique

Cells left blank10 of 432 · 2.3%

485310 loans, 2020 → 202116,593 → 234,254 · 14.1×

Couriers 492110 + 4922108,334 → 129,883

485310 average 2021 loan$11,642

485310 loans at the $20,833 cap13.7%

485310 2021 loans forgiven87.6%

Fastest rise in the table492110 couriers · 16.1×

What it is

Thirty-six six-digit industry codes in eleven groups. Eight groups hold the codes where one-person and gig work lands: rideshare and for-hire passenger transport, couriers, independent trucking, short-term lodging, personal care, home and cleaning services, independent artists and performers, and mobile food. Landlords, hotels and farms are there for comparison. For each code: loans approved in 2020 and in 2021, and a profile of the 2021 loans.

An SBA interim final rule, published March 8, 2021 and effective March 4, 2021, let Schedule C filers compute the loan from gross income instead of net profit. Its formula divides annual income, capped at $100,000, by 12 and multiplies by 2.5: "This amount cannot exceed $20,833." In 485310, 13.7% of 2021 loans were written at that ceiling; the average was $11,642.

Beef cattle ranching (112111) rose from 14,151 loans to 201,401, about as fast as 485310, and 99.8% of its 2021 loans were forgiven, against 87.6% for 485310.

How it was built

Every row of SBA's PPP FOIA release of September 30, 2024 is counted by approval year, six-digit NAICS code, processing method, borrower type and forgiveness status; the 36 codes are then read off. Amounts are current approved amounts. A second-draw loan is one SBA processed under method PPS. A person-type borrower is one whose business type is sole proprietorship, self-employed individual, independent contractor or single-member LLC. A loan counts as forgiven if its forgiveness amount is above zero.

The cap column counts 2021 loans with a current approved amount from $20,830 to $20,834, out of all 2021 loans in the code. It is filled for the 26 gig and solo-work codes and left blank for the ten comparison codes, whose individual loan amounts were not extracted.

Preview

group	naics	naics_title	loans_2020	loans_2021	multiple_2021_over_2020	second_draw_loans_2021	amount_2021_usd	avg_loan_2021_usd	person_type_share_2021_pct	forgiven_share_2021_pct	at_cap_share_2021_pct
Rideshare and for-hire passenger	485310	Taxi & limousine service	16593	234254	14.12	70204	2727288208.23	11642.44	98.8	87.6	13.7
Rideshare and for-hire passenger	485999	All other transit & ground passenger	7679	25825	3.36	9259	495394143.45	19182.74	89.1	87.8	18.6
Rideshare and for-hire passenger	485320	Limousine service (legacy code)	7855	19351	2.46	8458	378759863.05	19573.14	82.4	89.9	15.7
Delivery couriers	492110	Couriers & express delivery	5041	80990	16.07	25534	869535569.38	10736.33	97.1	84.8	11.2
Delivery couriers	492210	Local messengers & local delivery	3293	48893	14.85	6269	562080621.20	11496.14	95.6	86.0	13.1
Independent truckers	484110	General freight trucking, local	62703	109570	1.75	34480	2701981575.89	24659.87	79.7	87.5	31.2
Independent truckers	484121	General freight, long-distance TL	30170	82561	2.74	26890	2126248333.80	25753.66	77.3	91.0	41.7
Independent truckers	484230	Specialized freight, long-distance	7778	25412	3.27	3923	630395026.32	24806.98	80.2	87.0	40.8
Independent truckers	484122	General freight, long-distance LTL	3831	7923	2.07	2735	223554234.63	28215.86	69.8	88.3	32.7
Short-term lodging	721199	All other traveler accommodation	11933	18712	1.57	7911	735409731.46	39301.50	65.4	82.2	18.1

First 10 of 36 rows · cells longer than 60 characters are cut with an ellipsis · shown as text, unformatted.

Files

File	Rows	Size	SHA-256
`ppp-gig-industries-2020-2021.csv` CSV, UTF-8, header row	36	4,523 B	2e13303e22117da3c36dd4c2e2b5b5a4b3e50600c70d60191b8d49362e8bb21b	Download ↓
`dictionary.csv` data dictionary, 12 rows	12	—	built with this page	Download ↓

Columns

Column	Type, measured	Blank	Distinct	Range / values	Meaning
`group`	text	0	11	Personal care (5), Farmers and ranchers (comparison) (5), Independent truckers (4)	Our grouping of the code: eight gig and solo-work groups, three comparison groups marked (comparison).
`naics`	integer	0	36	111.1K – 813K · median 561.7K	Six-digit NAICS industry code as reported on the loan.
`naics_title`	text	0	36	Taxi & limousine service (1), All other transit & ground passenger (1), Limousine service (legacy code) (1)	Short title of the NAICS code.
`loans_2020`	integer	0	36	323 – 92.8K · median 10K	Loans approved in 2020.
`loans_2021`	integer	0	36	243 – 365.6K · median 35.8K	Loans approved in 2021.
`multiple_2021_over_2020`	number	0	34	0.41 – 16.07 · median 3.16	`loans_2021` divided by `loans_2020`, two decimals.
`second_draw_loans_2021`	integer	0	36	177 – 103.1K · median 9K	2021 loans SBA processed as second draws (method PPS).
`amount_2021_usd`	number	0	36	55.1M – 7.3B · median 708.3M	Current approved amount of the 2021 loans, in dollars.
`avg_loan_2021_usd`	number	0	36	10.7K – 606.9K · median 19.5K	`amount_2021_usd` divided by `loans_2021`.
`person_type_share_2021_pct`	number	0	35	13.40 – 98.80 · median 81.70	Percent of 2021 loans made to sole proprietorships, self-employed individuals, independent contractors and single-member LLCs.
`forgiven_share_2021_pct`	number	0	31	67.40 – 99.80 · median 87.55	Percent of 2021 loans with a forgiveness amount above zero.
`at_cap_share_2021_pct`	number	10	25	5.10 – 41.70 · median 22.40	Percent of 2021 loans with a current approved amount from $20,830 to $20,834. Blank for the ten comparison codes.

Type, blanks, distinct count, and range are measured on the file. The same table as CSV: dictionary.csv.

How to use it

Specific to this file, measured on it: keys, joins, encodings, units, and the values that will trip a naive count.

One row per NAICS code; the key is naics. Add rows within a group for group totals; averages and percentages must be re-weighted by loans_2021, not averaged.
The codes are a selection, not the program. The 36 codes hold 2,287,097 of the 6,331,948 loans dated 2021 in the 11,468,210-row file; do not read the column sums as PPP totals.
Year means approval year, the year of the loan's approval date in the SBA file, whatever round the loan belonged to.
LF line endings, UTF-8, 4,523 bytes. Percent columns are percents with one decimal.

Before you quote a row

Industry is the NAICS code on the loan record. Similar work can sit under neighboring codes, which is why the rideshare group holds 485310, 485320 and 485999.
Groups are labels, not platforms. Nothing in the SBA file links a loan to a rideshare, delivery or lodging company.
Forgiveness is a count of loans with any amount forgiven, not a dollar share.

Cite this table. Name the source vintage; the numbers depend on it.

PPP loans in gig and solo-work industries, 2020 and 2021, from SBA PPP FOIA loan-level data (2024-09-30 vintage). Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/data/ppp-gig-industries-2020-2021/, SHA-256 2e13303e22117da3c36dd4c2e2b5b5a4b3e50600c70d60191b8d49362e8bb21b