Small businesses have employed more than half of the nation's non-farm private-sector workforce in recent years, according to updated data from the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy.
In 2004, the latest year studied, small employers added nearly two million net new jobs to the U.S. economy, the data shows.
"Small businesses are America's job-creating dynamo," Chad Moutray, the agency's chef economist, said in a statement. "Clearly, policymakers need to consider their impact on small business when they are making policy decisions."
The updated data also shows the nation's had an estimated 26.8 million small businesses last year, including 1.2 million African-American owned firms, 1.6 million Hispanic-owned firms, and 1.1 million Asian-owned firms. Across the board, there were 6.5 million small businesses owned by women.
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