Business & Finance
The Economy

• Small Business:  Bristol's Small Business Loan Fund

• The Economy:  How Big Is Big Business in Vermont?

• Links to Business Info On-Line:  VT Small Business Resources On-Line {cont.}

.

Where the jobs are and where the money goes ...
The Economy:  How Big Is Big Business in Vermont?

With the recent lay-offs at IBM and the rise in unemployment, the question of the health of the State's economy is again in the spotlight.  There's no question that Vermont is in sync with the rest of the nation on this score.  But over the years, there have always been questions raised about how hospitable Vermont is to larger businesses.

In that light, we thought we'd check a few stats and see how Vermont stood in relation to other states when it comes to the size of the businesses in which Vermonters are employed.  In order to do that, we got hold of the most recent version of Statistics of U.S. Business 1998, and tried to determine from them which states housed the greatest percentage of larger business establishments and enterprises.  The results may surprise you.  ...

The Stats ...
Statistics of U.S. Business provides a variety of info on businesses in the U.S., as well as on individual states and even smaller subdivisions.  For business size, as you will see from the tables below, there are breakouts for businesses with 1-4, 5-9, 10-19, 20-99, 100-499, and 500+ employees.  The 500+ category is additionally broken out for businesses of 500-999, 1,000-1,499, 1,500-2,499, and 2,500+ employees, respectively.  The seemingly strange category of "None" identifies businesses which had no current employees in mid-March of the reporting year, but did have employees at other times.  

The stats also identify both the number of "firms" and the number of "establishments."  According to the documentation, an establishment is a "single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed," while a firm is "a business organization consisting of one or more domestic establishments in the same state and industry that were specified under common ownership or control."  Finally, the stats do not reflect businesses which do not employ others, nor those outside the labor force for whatever reason.

The U.S. Picture ...
In order to get an initial sense of how Vermont stacks up when it comes to the number of employees in different size businesses, we started by looking at the stats for the country as a whole.  As is immediately obvious, while the largest businesses -- those with 500 or more employees -- comprise about 13% of all establishments, they employ almost half of all paid employees [49.07%] and account for more than half [54%] of the total payroll.  Moreover, the largest of those -- businesses with 2,500+ employees -- account for more than a third of the paid workforce and more than 40% of all the payroll.  

At the other end of the spectrum, the largest single category is businesses with between 1 and 4 employees, which account for nearly 4 out of every 10  [38.45%] establishments.  And taken together, the smallest businesses -- those with fewer than 10 employees -- account for nearly two-thirds [63.51%] of all business establishments, but only about 1 of every 10 jobs [11.31%], and less than 10% [8.96%] of the total payroll.

How does that compare with the picture in Vermont?  ...

The Vermont Scene ...
Across the board, Vermont businesses and employment accounts for less than one-third of 1% of all U.S. establishments [0.31%], 0.22% of all paid employees, and only 0.18% -- or less than 82% -- of what would be Vermont's prorated portion of the total payroll.  This compares almost exactly with wages here in Vermont compared with the national average.  In 1998, average unemployment insurance wages stood at $26,209, or 82.5% of the U.S. average of $31,762 for that year.  {For more on wages, see this month's Work: Wages in Vermont.}

While across the country, businesses of 500+ employees account for nearly half of the paid workforce [49.07%], here in Vermont, only one-third of employees [33.68%]  find work in businesses of that size.  On the other end, Vermont has a somewhat greater percentage of establishments of 1-4 employees [42.87% vs.  38.45%], and, likewise, of businesses with fewer than 10 employees [69.88% vs. 63.51%].

How does Vermont fare in the other categories compared to U.S. averages?  ...  The smaller table at right provides a capsule summary. 

For this table, we simply divided the U.S. figures by the Vermont figures and subtracted 1 [xUS/xVT)-1] in order to show the percentage differences on each score.  Exact matches with U.S. averages, then, would equal zero.  Where Vermont showed larger percentages for a category, the percentage difference is positive, where lower, the difference is negative {in red}.

While Vermont had a somewhat higher percentage of smaller businesses  -- 11.49% above the national average for businesses of 1-4 employees and 4.48% above for those with 5-9 employees -- each of these categories accounted for nearly half-again the national average for the number of paid employees [53.34% and 45.15%, respectively].  Among the largest business establishments, Vermont was significantly below the national average by about 45% in each of the sub-categories except one -- businesses of 1,000-1,499 employees -- where Vermont showed more than half-again as many [53.66%] as the national average.

How does Vermont compare with other states?  ...

click here to continue ...

.

*******       *******

    If you would like to submit an article for our Investing section, don't hesitate to let us know.  Simply e-mail us at business@downstreetmagazine.com.  The e-mail should contain your name, address, and a phone number where we can reach you.  You may also send a copy of your proposed article.  The text can either be included in the body of the e-mail, or you can send it as an attachment in just about any word processing format.  If your piece is accepted, we will pay a small honorarium for your interest & your time.  [See Freelancers Wanted for more details.]

If you would like to advertise in this section, or throughout the magazine, please visit our Advertising Info Pages ... or call, write, or e-mail ads@downstreetmagazine.com.

*******       *******

.

   Phone                                (802) 453-5124
    Fax                                    (978) 428-6335
   ... or e-mail
   Advertising:                              ads@downstreetmagazine.com
   Articles & submissions:        submissions@downstreetmagazine.com
   Subscriptions:                          subscribe@downstreetmagazine.com
   ...    

All material copyrighted © 2000-2001.  All rights reserved.
Citations should follow standard conventions.
Please contact us for reprint permissions.
DownStreet Magazine is a registered trademark of Fern Hill Services.
Lou Colasanti, Editor & Laura Wisniewski, Associate Editor
.                                                                                                 .