Small Businesses Are Important Players in U.S. Business and Job Growth

Small businesses have played, play and will play an important role in the nation’s economic future, the Office of Advocacy’s Small Business Profile for the United States relveals.
The Office, an independent voice for small business within the federal government, released 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. In 2008, the United States saw an increase of 0.7% in GDP and a private sector employment decline of 0.7%.
The latest data, related to 2006, show that small employers in the United States numbered 6m. There were also 20.8m nonemployers, which increased to 21.7 million by 2007. Small businesses added 2.5m net new jobs in 2005-2006, employing 50.2% 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 Islanders all increased significantly over the most recent period for which Census data are available.
Commenting on figures, Susan Walthall, Acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy, said: “The United States continues to depend on the health and ingenuity of its small business sector for the nation’s economic growth. “In today’s economic climate, it is especially important for policymakers to keep small business concerns in mind as they formulate policy”, she added.
FinSMEs
30/10/2009

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