Delta County Area Chamber of Commerce

MINDING OUR OWN BUSINESS
May 15, 2004

by Linda Hirvonen
Delta County EDA Director

SBA Profiles Michigan

The Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration (SBA) publishes an annual “Small Business Profile” for each state. The 2003 report is out, and in honor of National Small Business Week, here is a synopsis of their Michigan profile. The information represents a combination of latest data available, with a range of 2000 census data, year-end 2002 and what’s available about 2003. I did not include the pieces of data that have not been updated since the 1997 economic census.

• Small business (under 500) is responsible for half of US private and non-farm output and employment. It is no surprise that while the gross domestic product (GDP) rose in 2003, recovery in employment was slower.

• In 2002 there were 211,567 businesses, or 0.5% decline from 2001

• The number of self-employed individuals was also down from 2001 by 4.2%.

• 98.4% of businesses in Michigan in 2002 were small businesses.

• Self-employed women comprised 42.8% of self-employed workers in the state (2002), or 123,470 women

• Women owned 184,600 businesses in 2002, and 14.5% of those businesses had employees.

• Minority owned businesses accounted for 7.6% of Michigan businesses in 1997, the latest data available.

• 802 bankruptcies in 2002 represents a 16.6% increased from 2001 levels.

• There were 26,975 businesses “terminated” in 2002; a 1.7% increase.

• New employer firms created declined 1.1% from 2001, and totaled 22,799 in 2002.

• Non-farm proprietor’s income,” which provides some indication of small business income, rose by 4.9% in 2002; the total income was $18.7 Billion.

• Between 1999 and 2000, small businesses in Michigan added 75,893 employees, and represented 99% of net non-farm employment change in the state.

• In 2000, 50.8% of the state’s “non farm” employees worked in small businesses (under 500 employees each). The total non-farm employees for 2000 was given as 4,072,786.

• The industry with the most small business employees is manufacturing.

Unfortunately, the Michigan Labor Market Information for the UP is no longer tracked by industry- information we received monthly through 2002. We had been able to track our changed in employment by sector both within the county, the Central UP, and the whole UP. Now the only information we receive is total number employed, unemployed, and in workforce by county and UP. We have never been able to accurately track the number of businesses in the county or region.

Read more about it: The SBA has lots of valuable information; visit www.sba.gov. Michigan labor market information can be found at www.michlmi.org. A good resource for UP information is NMU’s Bureau for Business and Economic Research www.bber.org. Additional information can be found via the US Department of Labor, US Department of Commerce, and the Census Bureau.

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