Monday, November 10, 2008

SMALL BUSINESS POWERS EMPLOYMENT IN MICHIGAN

The data nearby indicates that more people in Michigan are employed by businesses with 100-249 employees than any other firm size. Small business is an economic engine.


Michigan Private Employers
Size of Firm
1St Quarter 2007
Firm Size









Number
of
Employees

Number
of
Firms
March
Employment
Average
Weekly Wage
($)










0

53,622
0
NA
1 - 4

98,472
201,507
$692.00
5 - 9

40,332
266,435
$624.00
10 - 19

26,446
356,202
$658.00
20 - 49

17,786
536,961
$712.00
50 - 99

6,589
456,536
$766.00
100 - 249

4,106
615,962
$841.00
250 - 499

1,097
371,036
$889.00
500 - 999

336
224,254
$1,129.00
1000 +

215
464,800
$1,309.00





Totals

249,001
3,493,693
$854.00

2 comments:

Anita Campbell said...

Hi David, there would be even more employment if they'd credit the "0 employee" firms as having at least one employee (the owner). It's employment, whichever way you cut it. Just a thought....

Anita

David Damore said...

Anita,
Thanks for your comments. It would have been helpful if there was data for average weekly wage for the "0 employees" category. We can certainly calculate how many people are involved in firms with 0 employees as being 53,622 [the number of firms].

Another point that usually goes without being said is that small businesses grow and large businesses shrink. Once a firm is fully scaled up they seek to become more productive [read: expense reduction, slowing sales growth etc] and hence substitute technology for people/labor. The Big 3 automakers have been shrinking their labor pool for decades. They increased their use of automation [technology] to reduce their employee count.

Hopefully many small firms [0-99 employees] become firms with 100-249 employees. We need policies that encourage [rather than discourage] these firms to invest and grow.

Why 100-249?

The positive impact from successful firms of this size is huge. They have the most jobs as a raw number per firm size [615,962]. The cost to society of any one firm of this size failing are minuscule compared to say any one firm with 1000+ employees.

David


What are your thoughts?