This indicator is part of Businesses develop & prosper.

Indicator description:                                                           

This indicator measures the contribution of establishments of various sizes to the total economies of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and six other regional Southwest MSAs for 2000 and 2005. Data are shown for the percentages of establishments, employees, and annual payroll in thousands of dollars. An establishment is a single location at which business is conducted or services or industrial operations are performed. It is not necessarily the same as a firm, company, or enterprise, which may consist of one or more establishments.

Why is this indicator relevant?

Small businesses add flexibility, adaptability, and agility to the economy. Nationally, they create 70% of the new jobs and represent more than half of the U.S. non-farm private Gross Domestic Product.

Data Sources:
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, Statistics of U.S. Businesses, 2002 , 2005; Preston, Steven. 2007. "The Importance of Entrepreneurship to America", The Ripon Forum, No. 1(1), 2007.

What can we tell from the data?

• Albuquerque is slightly less dependent on small business and more dependent on large establishments than all of the Southwest benchmark cities except for El Paso, TX.
• Between 2000 and 2005, Colorado Springs had the largest increase in the percentages of small business establishments, employment, and payroll. Salt Lake City had the largest decline in the percentages of small business employment and payroll. El Paso was the only city to show a decrease in the percentage of small business establishments. Albuquerque was generally at or near the middle range of all measures.

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