|
How important are small businesses to the U.S. economy? (average S corp generated about $100,000 income on about $1.5 million in sales in the last year, sole proprietorships had revenues of $58,256 and net income of $11,696.)
Small firms:
Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
Employ just over half of all private sector employees.
Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
Have generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.
Create more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
Hire 40 percent of high tech workers (such as scientists, engineers, and computer programmers).
Are 52 percent home-based and 2 percent franchises.
Made up 97.3 percent of all identified exporters and produced 30.2 percent of the known export value in FY 2007.
Produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms; these patents are twice as likely as large firm patents to be among the one percent most cited.
Sources (see the Office of Advocacy's Research and Statistics page):
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census and International Trade Admin.
Advocacy-funded research by Kathryn Kobe, 2007
CHI Research, 2003
U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
|