Tennessee's Self-Employment Numbers Surge

The Washington, D.C.-based Office of Advocacy released its annual Small Business Profiles for the States and Territories Thursday, with the study showing Tennessee’s self-employment numbers having surged during the past decade.

Following are highlights from the Office of Advocacy small business profile of Tennessee:

• There were approximately 545,000 small businesses in Tennessee in 2009. Of these, about 96,000 were employers and they accounted for 44.8 percent of private sector jobs in the state. Small firms comprised 97 percent of the state’s employers.

• Throughout 2010, the number of establishments that opened was lower than those that closed, but the net employment change from this turnover was positive.

• Tennessee’s real gross state product decreased 1.6 percent and private-sector employment decreased 0.5 percent percent in 2010. By comparison, real GDP in the United States decreased 1.3 percent and private sector employment declined by 0.8 percent.

• Self-employment in Tennessee surged over the last decade. Male self-employment fared better than female self-employment during the decade.

Brown said the self-employment findings show Tennessee is an entrepreneurial state.

“But our members believe we have opportunities to make it better,” he said. “We think the governor and his team are zero-ing in on those areas of opportunity, for which we are certainly grateful.”

Full article from the Nashville Post is available here.