Friday, July 13, 2012

Picking On the Job Creators

So BR emails me the other day that links here with the message “Have a field day with this crap” (not unlike many emails I get). So, off to the link I go to read the story. What I assume incensed the sender is essentially the same thing that has really been incensing me for the past several years: that we apparently now live in a relatively fact-free environment where folks are comfortable spinning whatever tales fit their agenda, reality be damned. This seems to be especially true when it comes to genuflecting before our deified “job creators.”
Let’s look at the crux of the author’s piece (emphasis mine):
However hostile Democrats like me may be to the excesses of Wall Street, and however much everybody admires the small, independent businesses in our neighborhoods and communities, big business remains the primary driver of economic growth and job creation.
Really?
What does ADP data tell us about that going back to the end of the recession?

(Source: FRED Series NPPTS, NPPTM, NPPTL, author calculations)
What does the SBA tell us (PDF) about small business (emphasis mine)?
Small firms (defined as those with fewer than 500 employees):
• Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
• Employ about half of all private sector employees.
• Pay 43 percent of total U.S. private payroll.
Have generated 65 percent of net new jobs over the past 17 years.
Create more than half of the nonfarm private GDP.

Read more: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/07/picking-on-the-job-creators/

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