Today, the Office of Advocacy, an independent office within the Small Business Administration, released the annual Small Business Profiles. The user-friendly data-rich profiles capture vital information on the U.S. and state-level economic growth, industry, and jobs using completely reproducible data from the leading government statistical agencies.
“Continuing Advocacy’s efforts to modernize and improve the application of our products, this year’s Small Business State Profiles have elevated the bar of usability,” said Chief Counsel for Advocacy Darryl L. DePriest. “This transparent format allows for anyone to reproduce and create their own small business profiles specific to their needs or the needs of their stakeholders.”
“The revamped design and the intuitive charts allow West Virginia’s small businesses to better understand the contributions they make to their community and the critical role they play in West Virginia’s economic success,” said Chief Economist and Director of Economic Research Christine Kymn.
Top line national small business statistics include:
- West Virginia is home to 115,162 million small businesses.
- West Virginia small businesses represent 95.6% of all businesses with employees and employ about 50.5% of the nation’s private-sector workforce.
- Small businesses with fewer than 100 employees have the largest share of small business employment.
- The three West Virginia industries with the most small business jobs are Health Care and Social Assistance with 59,088 jobs, Accommodation and Food Services with 40,903 jobs, and Retail Trade with 33,545 jobs.
- The number of minority-owned firms increased by 30.3% between 2007 and 2012.
- Small businesses made up 75.5% of West Virginia exporting companies and generated 30.9% of West Virginia’s total known export value.
The West Virginia profile is available on the Office of Advocacy website.
