Census Bureau releases inaugural survey on nation’s entrepreneurial-driven job growth

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its inaugural Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs highlighting that nearly one out of every 10 businesses with employees on the payroll have been in operation less than two years.

The new report supports recent analysis by Talk Business & Politics showing that many of the 42,000 jobs added to the state’s economy during the first 16 months of the Hutchinson administration have come from the state’s fast-growing professional and business services supersector, which includes startup firms and entrepreneur-driving companies with small payrolls of high-paid employees.

According to the findings of the Census Bureau report released over the Labor Day weekend, the 5.4 million U.S. firms with paid employees, 481,981, or 8.9%, had been in business for less than two years in 2014. In contrast to the employer firms that had been in business for less than two years, there were 167,917, or 3.15%, that had been in business for 16 years or more. More than 4 in 10 employer firms (2.4 million, or 44.1%) have been in business between 11 and 15 years.

Beginning with release of 2014 statistics and continuing through the release of 2016 data, the Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs will supplement the Survey of Business Owners, conducted every five years. The Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs provides a more frequent socio-economic portrait of the nation’s employer businesses by gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status. It includes a relevant topic not found in the Survey of Business Owners: the number of years a firm has been in business.

The 2014 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs statistics show there were 949,318 minority-owned firms with paid employees, comprising 17.5% of all employer firms. The minority-owned employer firms generated $1.1 trillion in receipts (approximately 3.3% of the receipts for all employer firms). Among minority-owned employer firms, 12.9% had been in business for less than two years, while only 1.4% had been in business for 16 or more years.

Of the 949,318 minority-owned firms with paid employees, more than half (506,595, or 53.4%) were Asian-owned; 108,473 (11.4%) were black or African-American-owned; 26,757 (2.8%) were American Indian or Alaska Native-owned; 4,701 (0.5%) were Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander-owned; and close to a third (298,563, or 31.5%) were Hispanic-owned. The owner of a Hispanic-owned firm may be of any race.

Women owned approximately 1.1 million employer firms, or 19.4%, with receipts totaling $1.3 trillion, or 4%. Of these, 10.8% had been in business for less than two years, whereas 1.9% had been in business for 16 or more years.

Veterans owned 405,235 employer firms, or 7.5%, with receipts of $924.1 billion, or 2.8%. Of these, 6.8% had been in business for less than two years, while 3.6% had been in business for 16 or more years.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY, SUPPORT
The Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs collected data from a sample of approximately 290,000 employer businesses that were in operation anytime during the survey year.

The survey is a public-private partnership among the U.S. Census Bureau, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Minority Business Development Agency.

“As ‘America’s Data Agency,’ the Department of Commerce puts open data resources and digital tools in the hands of families, communities, and federal and local leaders to help them make data-driven decisions,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said. “The Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs is a new and exciting resource that responds to data users’ request for more timely statistics on the demographics of America’s businesses owners.”

The Census Bureau data provides estimates of receipts, payroll and employment for the nation, states and the District of Columbia, and the 50 most populous metropolitan statistical areas. Firm size data are available by sales size (the number of firms with sales/receipts of $1 million or more) and employment size (the number of firms with 500 employees or more).

“For the first time, we are making statistics available every year that show a portrait of America’s business owners, providing information vital to understanding the state of our economy,” Census Bureau Director John Thompson said. “We thank the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Minority Business Development Agency for their partnership in providing this more timely data for everyone from policymakers to small business owners.”