A recent U.S. Department of Commerce survey states that female-owned businesses are growing in number and hiring more employees than those by men reports Bloomberg.
The number of companies owned by women grew by 44 percent to 7.8 million from 1977 to 2007, compared with a 22 percent increase in firms owned by men, the Commerce Department report found. Male-owned firms in 2007 totaled 13.9 million.
“Women-Owned Businesses in the 21st Century,” also found women in business added 500,000 workers to their payrolls while firms owned by men shed almost 2 million jobs during the period. As of 2007, the latest year that full U.S. Census Bureau data was available, women-owned businesses employed 7.6 million workers, according to the report released Oct. 4.
“The good news is that women-owned businesses have actually been growing over the last decade and actually growing faster than men-owned private businesses,” Rebecca Blank, Commerce’s undersecretary for economic affairs, said in a phone interview. “There’s clearly a sense here, if you look into the future, of an enormous growth opportunity for women-owned businesses in the private sector.”
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