The U.S. Small Business Administration just released an annual report, “2011 Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories,” although much of the most-recent-available data are from 2009 and 2010.
The report consists of individual state profiles, and as usual it is a testament to the importance and influence of small businesses everywhere. (A small business is defined as one with fewer than 500 employees.)
Highlights from the Washington data:
• There were 532,162 small businesses in Washington in 2009, representing 98.1 percent of all employers and accounting for 53.3 percent of the private-sector workforce. Nationally, Washington ranks 15th by that percentage. Montana was ranked first and Nevada was ranked last.
• Most of Washington’s small businesses in 2009 were very small: 72.8 percent did not have any employees. Most small businesses that did employ people had fewer than 20 workers.
You can download the Washington report and find more data about other states and the nation as a whole at www.sba.gov/advocacy.
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