The Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration (SBA) released its annual Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories earlier this week. This is the 16th year the office has published a state-by-state profile of American small business for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
The profiles use the most recent data available to provide details about small business employment, business starts and closings, bank lending, business ownership by minorities, women, and veterans, and firm and employment change by major industry and firm size.
“By supporting policies that promote innovation and entrepreneurship, we help small businesses tackle these challenging economic times. These statistics are a resource for a path to economic growth,” said Dr. Winslow Sargeant, chief counsel for the Office of Advocacy.
Here are some highlights from Washington state’s small business profile:
• There were 532,162 small businesses in Washington in 2009. Of these, 142,854 were employers and they accounted for 53.3 percent of private sector jobs in the state. Small firms made up 98.1 percent of the state’s employers.
• Throughout 2010, the number of opening establishments was lower than closing establishments and the net employment change from this turnover was negative.
• Washington’s real gross state product increased 0.7 percent and private-sector employment decreased 1.8 percent in 2010. By comparison, real GDP in the United States decreased 1.3 percent and private sector employment declined by 0.8 percent.
• Self-employment in Washington surged over the last decade. Female self-employment fared the best compared with other demographic groups during the decade.
For more information and a complete copy of the current state and territory small business profiles, visit the Office of Advocacy website.
