Small Businesses Are Important Players in U.S. Business and Job Growth
Small businesses will play an important role in the
nation’s economic future. The Office of Advocacy’s Small Business Profile for
the United States, (http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/profiles/) released
today, provides details about small business employment, business starts and
closings, bank lending in 2008, the demographics of business ownership, and
firm and employment change by major industry and firm size.
“The United States continues to depend on the health and ingenuity of its
small business sector for the nation’s economic growth,” said Susan Walthall,
Acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy. “In today’s economic climate, it is
especially important for policymakers to keep small business concerns in mind
as they formulate policy.”
In 2008, the United States saw an increase of 0.7 percent in GDP and a
private sector employment decline of 0.7 percent. The U.S. profile also shows
that:
* Small employers in the United States numbered 6 million in 2006 (latest
data). There were also 20.8 million nonemployers, which increased to 21.7
million by 2007.
* Small businesses added 2.5 million net new jobs in 2005-2006. Overall, they
employed 50.2 percent of the nation’s nonfarm private workforce in 2006.
* Businesses owned by women, and by Asian Americans, African Americans,
Hispanic Americans, and Hawaiians and Pacific Islandeers all increased
significantly over the most recent period for which Census data are available.
As additional small business data become available over the coming months,
they will be incorporated in a new edition of the state profiles, to be issued in
early 2010.
For more information and a complete copy of the state and territory small
business profiles, visit the Office of Advocacy website at www.sba.gov/advo.
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