Small Businesses Create 15 Jobs in April to Every One Created by Big Business

John Arensmeyer

Original statement issued on May 4, 2012:

ADP released data Wednesday revealing our nation’s smallest businesses—those with 1-49 employees—continue to outperform large businesses in the job creation arena. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees created roughly half of all new jobs in April, while small businesses overall accounted for a sweeping 96.7 percent of all new jobs last month. Conversely, large businesses created a mere 3.3 percent of new jobs.

These figures reinforce the notion that small businesses—and particularly those with fewer than 50 employees—are indeed the country’s primary job creators and remain the backbone of the American economy. Of the 119,000 new jobs created last month, the smallest businesses created 58,000, while those with 50-499 employees were responsible for another 57,000, according to ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.). Only 4,000 jobs were generated by businesses with more than 500 employees in April.

We encourage lawmakers to continue focusing on policies conducive to small business job creation, such as investments in renewable energy, which 71 percent of small business owners believe would help create jobs immediately according to research we released last week. Boosting small firms’ access to credit is another surefire way to keep the momentum going. Small businesses can and will put our economy back on track, but they can’t do it singlehandedly. Legislators must continue pursuing pragmatic economic policies that can ensure entrepreneurs have they tools they need to keep rebuilding the economy.