Business in America News

Small Manufacturers Driving Job Creation, Economic Growth

Ed note: This was originally published on Open for Business, the official blog of the SBA

Made in America is hot.  More than 400,000 manufacturing jobs have been created since the start of 2010 and there are currently about 229,000 job openings in the manufacturing sector, according to data from the Labor Department.

America’s small manufacturers are a critical part of that. According to BLS and Census data, 98 percent of America’s manufacturing firms are small.  More than one in three Americans who work in manufacturing, work at a small business.  

Everyone from the President on down has been working very hard to make sure these firms have the tools they need to grow and create jobs.

For example, in 2010, President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act. One of the most important provisions was increasing the limit on SBA loans from $2 million to $5 million. The higher loan limits directly helped nearly 2,500 small businesses – including nearly 450 small manufacturers – with access to over $10.2 billion to help buy new buildings, buy more equipment, and hire more workers. 

We’re building on that momentum by taking even more steps to help small manufacturers.

First Lady and Dr. Biden Urge Action from State Governors on Military Spouse Hiring

First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden discuss military spouse employment at the National Governors Association annual meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House, Feb. 27, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Earlier this morning, the First Lady and Dr. Jill Biden addressed the National Governors Association (NGA) Winter Meeting, the annual meeting that brings state leaders to Washington, D.C. to discuss important issues impacting all Americans.

Today, the First Lady and Dr Biden had one message for the governors: urging them to take action on the state level to support America’s military spouses. 

In their travels to military bases across America and throughout the world over the last three years, the First Lady and Dr. Biden have heard stories from countless military family members and spouses.  One of the top issues they hear about everywhere they go deals with the professional licensing requirements that affect how military spouses can move forward in their careers. 

Less than two weeks ago, the First Lady and Dr. Biden joined the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all of the Joint Chiefs in rolling out a new report on state licensing.   

This is an enormous issue for military spouses throughout this country. There are more than 100,000 military spouses who serve in the dozens of professions that require a state license or credential – teachers, nurses, childcare providers, dental hygienists, real estate brokers, speech pathologists and many other professionals. Each move to a new state can mean different credentialing or licensing standards – a process that can sometimes take months to resolve.  

As part of their address to military families and Pentagon leadership, the First Lady and Dr. Biden announced an ambitious goal: for 50 states to pass legislation that supports military spouse license portability by 2014. 

Report from the Road: An Ambitious Plan to Train Ohio Workers for New Jobs

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and Dr. Jill Biden visit DG Medical on the Community College to Career Tour (CC2C). They will be stopping at locations in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina to highlight the importance of community colleges in fostering careers.22 February 2012

Dr. Jill Biden and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis today kicked off a three-day “Community College to Career” bus tour to highlight the unique role community colleges play in developing a flexible, highly-skilled 21^st-century workforce to meet emerging regional business needs.  Secretary Solis is writing updates on the trip from the road.

Dr. Biden and I just visited DG Medical in Centerville, Ohio, to hear about the incredible BioOhio Workforce development partnership that is helping community colleges like Sinclair Community College prepare Ohioans for jobs in the growing biomedical manufacturing industry.

Sinclair is working with former GM/Delphi employees and other dislocated workers to get retraining to perform jobs making medical devices and life-saving drugs. They are part of a BioOhio partnership that has brought together industry leaders and six Ohio community colleges to match workforce needs with course offerings.

The ambitious goal is to graduate 700 Ohioans and place them in biosciences jobs as clean technicians, shipping clerks, packaging experts, manufacturing technicians and test engineers.  More than half of existing program graduates already have found good-paying jobs in this field. Also, incumbent workers are being trained to move up the career ladder to become team leaders and front-line supervisors.

Watching this unique partnership at work illustrates why health care industry job growth continues to help drive our recovery forward.

Want to join the conversation by sharing how community colleges and industry partners are working together in your community?  Share your story at http://www.whitehouse.gov/communitycollege/tour and follow and engage with the tour on Twitter with the hashtag #CCtour.

You can see more of Secretary Solis' posts at Work in Progress, the Department of Labor's official blog.

New Report Highlights Wireless Broadband Benefits for Public Safety and Job Creation

Vice President Joe Biden holds a conference call in the West Wing to thank first responders and to discuss the economic value of increasing spectrum, Feb. 21, 2012. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Today, Vice President Biden met with law enforcement officials, firefighters and public safety groups in the Roosevelt Room and spoke to a couple hundred more first responders by telephone to thank them for their service and to discuss the new nationwide public-safety broadband network included in the Payroll Tax Extension legislation. 

Members of the audience included police chiefs and sergeants from the New York City Police Department, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the National Association of Police Organization, among others. The Vice President discussed the need to ensure the safety of first responders and the public,and announced a new report from the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) that discusses the positive benefits of wireless broadband for public safety as well as jobs, growth, and investment.

The report illustrates the economic impact of President Obama’s goal of doubling the amount of spectrum available for wireless broadcast over ten years, while adopting a nationwide inter operable wireless network. 

Vice President Biden said the expanded access “will enable new spectrum to be used for innovation, to speed wireless communication, and to fulfill a promise made to first responders after 9/11 that they would have the technology they need to stay safe and do their jobs.”

“I’ve been working on changing the way we allocate spectrum for a long time,” Vice President Biden said, “because a smarter system is good for our economy, good for innovation, and vital to keeping our communities as well as our cops, firefighters and EMTs safe.”

Kicking Off the Community College to Career Bus Tour

Tomorrow, Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will embark on a three-day “Community College to Career” bus tour to highlight innovative industry initiativesthat are helping train students with the skills they need to meet area workforce needs. 

President Obama recently announced an $8 billion Community College to Career Fund, co-administered by the Department of Labor and Department of Education,which will help forge new partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train two million workers with skills that will lead directly to jobs.

During the tour, Dr. Biden and Secretary Solis will visit several community colleges to learn about model industry partnerships, but we know there are many more success stories around the country (check out the full schedule below). We want to hear from community college faculty, students, business and community leaders about how these partnerships have benefited you and your community.

Check out this video from Secretary Solis asking for community college faculty, students and industry partners to share their stories.  Got a story to share? Head over to WhiteHouse.gov/CommunityCollege/Tour to tell us about it or share your story on Twitter using the hashtag #CCtour.

Here’s the full schedule for the bus tour.

Introducing BusinessUSA

Today, as part of the Administration’s ongoing effort to support and strengthen American businesses, we officially launched BusinessUSA – a new online platform that will make it easier for businesses to access the services and information they need to help them grow, hire and export.

BusinessUSA is specifically designed to help meet the President’s goal of streamlining business-related agencies to better meet the needs of America’s businesses in the 21^st Century global economy.  For too long, entrepreneurs – and especially small business owners – have been forced to navigate a confusing maze of government agencies to get the support and resources they need. The President has made clear that this is unacceptable.  As he said in his State of the Union Address, we need to give U.S. businesses every opportunity and tool to succeed so that they can grow and hire right here in America – and that’s what today’s launch is all about.

BusinessUSA isn’t just another website. It’s a virtual one stop shop that gives businesses access to the full range of resources they need at every stage of their development – providing assistance getting patents, loans to grow and hire, information on contracting opportunities, and help breaking into new markets overseas. The sitetakes a “No Wrong Door” approach that creates a common platform to match businesses with the services relevant to them, regardless of where the information is located or which agency’s website, call center, or office they go to for help. With a simple click of a mouse, BusinessUSA’s search function puts a wealth of valuable and relevant information at users’ fingertips.

Expanding the Healthcare Tax Credit for Small Businesses

Ed. Note: This was originally posted on Open for Business, the U.S. Small Business Administration blog.  

Right now, small businesses across America pay an average of 18 percent more to provide health insurance than large businesses.  While the insurance exchanges included in the Affordable Care Act will bring these costs down starting in 2014, we need to make it easier for small business owners to provide insurance to their employees right now. One important part of President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget proposal expands a tax credit that does exactly that.

The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit has benefited hundreds of thousands of small businesses since the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010.  After listening to business owners around the country, the President is proposing to make the tax credit available to more businesses and easier to claim. The budget increases the maximum size of eligible companies from 25 employees to 50, proposes more generous phase-out provisions and simplifies the credit, making it easier to claim. It is estimated that if the President’s proposal were enacted, the tax credit will benefit about half a million employers who provide healthcare to 4 million workers in 2012 alone. Over the next decade, this proposal would provide an additional $14 billion in tax credits to small employers across the country.

These changes will help small business owners hire more employees and create an economy built to last. Take for example, Mark Hodesh, who owns Downtown Home and Garden in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  He started offering healthcare about 15 years ago to attract and retain talented employees so that he could compete with bigger stores and to help address skyrocketing healthcare costs his employees were facing. 

In 2010, after qualifying for the small business healthcare tax credit, he got back nearly $9,000, almost 30 percent of his costs, for offering coverage to 11 full-time employees. The money he saved helped him hire a new employee, and now, with 12 employees, his tax credit could be go up to about $10,000 if the President’s proposal to expand the tax credit is adopted by Congress. 

Joining Forces to Hire America’s Veterans – Idaho Style

A Boise-based billboard company has put up 32 billboards in Idaho to awareness around veteran unemployment

Driving down the interstate in Idaho, you may be surprised by the new billboards you pass. Instead of being greeted by ads for fast-food restaurants and chain hotels, billboards that encourage the hiring of veterans grace the sides of the road. 

“Let’s Join Forces And Hire A Veteran,” the signs proclaim. This call to action comes from Lamar Advertising, a Boise-based billboard company that has put up 32 billboards in Idaho to get the word out about hiring our nation’s veterans. These huge billboards encourage Americans to view veterans as assets and to give them the chance to demonstrate their skills and talents through meaningful employment. 

Lamar has teamed with Joining Forces in this public service campaign. Efforts like Lamar’s are helping to answer the President’s call to hire and/or train 100,000 veterans or their spouses by the end of 2013, a goal which we are moving closer toward every day.    

This donation from Lamar Advertising is exactly what the First Lady had in mind when she launched Joining Forces with Dr. Jill Biden, asking every American to do what they do best in support of our veterans and their families. Lamar is taking on that challenge. A leading advertising firm that specializes in billboard ads, Lamar is making a difference in Idaho by raising awareness of veteran unemployment. This awareness will ultimately lead to jobs for men and women who have taken an oath to protect and defend our country. Today, only 1 percent of Americans serve our nation as military members, taking care of the other 99 percent of citizens. With companies like Lamar, we are supporting those who support us.

The Employment Situation in January

Today’s employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It is critical that we continue the economic policies that are helping us to dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the recession that began at the end of 2007. Most importantly, we need to extend the payroll tax cut and continue to provide emergency unemployment benefits through the end of this year, and take the additional steps that President Obama proposed in his State of the Union address to create an economy built to last.

The unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point to 8.3%, from a high of 10% in October 2009. The drop in unemployment over the month was entirely due to employment growth, as the labor force participation rate remained constant, once new population weights are taken into account.  The unemployment rate has fallen by 0.8 percentage point in the last 12 months. Private sector payrolls increased by 257,000 jobs and overall payroll employment rose by 243,000 jobs in January. Despite adverse shocks that have created headwinds for economic growth, the economy has added private sector jobs for 23 straight months, for a total of 3.7 million payroll jobs over that period. In the last 12 months, 2.2 million private sector jobs were added on net.  Nonetheless, we need faster growth to put more Americans back to work.

Sectors with net job increases in December included professional and business services (+70,000), manufacturing (+50,000), leisure and hospitality (+44,000), health care and social assistance (+29,700), and construction (+21,000).  Government lost 14,000 jobs.

The monthly employment and unemployment numbers can be volatile, and employment estimates can be subject to substantial revision. Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report; nevertheless, the trend in job market indicators over recent months is an encouraging sign.