Recent Job Creation Trends
Recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics further reinforces the dominant role of small businesses in job creation. In the fourth quarter of 2023, businesses with fewer than 250 employees accounted for 71% of gross job gains nationwide. Breaking this down further:
- Firms with 1-4 employees generated 16.3% of gross job gains
- Firms with 5-9 employees: 10.8%
- Firms with 10-19 employees: 11.9%
- Firms with 20-49 employees: 14.1%
- Firms with 50-99 employees: 8.9%
- Firms with 100-249 employees: 9.2%
In contrast, businesses with 1,000 or more employees accounted for 19.2% of gross job gains. These BLS figures provide clear, quantitative evidence of the disproportionate role small and medium-sized businesses play in job creation.
The consistency of these findings across multiple reputable sources and over extended periods reinforces the robustness of the conclusion: small businesses are, indeed, the primary engines of job creation and economic growth. This is not a matter of interpretation but a clear economic reality supported by hard data from the nation's most authoritative sources on employment and business statistics.
In the context of Idaho's economic development strategies, these numbers raise important questions about the alignment of policy with economic realities. With small businesses consistently outperforming large corporations in job creation, both nationally and especially within Idaho, the focus of economic development efforts exclusively on big business attraction appears increasingly at odds with the data-driven understanding of where job growth actually occurs.