Washington, DC…Following is the daily “Profile America” feature from the U.S. Census Bureau: Profile America — Wednesday, March 29th. While shoppers and communities often welcome the opening of a major department store or a branch of a big-box chain, they are also the cause of some concern. Small local businesses face greater competition, yet those small businesses are an outsized engine of economic growth. Additionally, they are important distinguishing features in local communities. That’s why today is Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. In 2012, there were nearly 28 million business firms in the U.S., but only 5.4 million of them had paid employees. In that group, over 2.7 million– about half– were enterprises having four or fewer employees. Almost 10 million of America’s business enterprises are women-owned. You can find current data on the country’s economy by downloading the ‘America’s Economy’ mobile application at www.census.gov/mobile.

Sources:
Occasion/accessed 1/5/2017: http://www.cute-calendar.com/event/national-mom-and-pop-business-owners-day/13027-usa.html
Total business firms/Survey of Business Owners: https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/SBO/2012/00CSA01/0100000US
Women-owned firms/Survey of Business Owners: https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/SBO/2012/00CSA01

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for “Audio” in the “Library” pull-down menu).

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau