SBA Publishes its State of Small Business Report for 2012

February 20, 2013

If you are small business statistics geek, you must download SBA’s 164 page report.

There is a lot of stuff in there.

Here are some highlights:

After falling from 2005 to 2009, the income of our smallest businesses (proprietorships) increased by 6.0 percent from 2010 to 2011. Corporate profits, which also declined in 2005-2009, increased by 7.9 percent in the same period.

Startups or births of employer firms were still below pre-downturn levels – 533,945 in 2010 compared with 668,395 in 2007, but they increased from 2009 to 2010. On the other hand, closings or deaths of employer firms, which reached a new high of 680,716 in 2009, declined to 593,347 in 2010.

Small firms with fewer than 500 workers outperformed large firms in net job creation in three of the four quarters of 2011, similar to a pattern that has existed since 1992 in periods when private-sector employment rose. In contrast, job losses prevailed in almost all firm sizes for the first quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2010.

Among the self-employed, certain demographic groups saw large increases in 2010-2011, particularly Latino, Asian, black and urban self-employed workers and the 55+ age cohort that reflects the large baby boom generation.

Total business lending continued to increase by June 2012; the rate of decline slowed for small business loans of all size categories.

Funds raised by venture capital firms increased, and disbursements increased to levels comparable to those in 2006.