Access Ventures

This is a useful insight by the Koffaman Foundation regarding the real source of new employment. For anyone worried about a jobless economic recovery, we should take the focus off of just small business and look to how our nation supports innovation. Today's WSJ article by Carl Schramm, Robert Litan and Dane Strangler correctly points out the facts behind job growth. "The conventional wisdom is that such businesses account for half of the labor force and are therefore the engine of future job creation. That's not quite the case. The more precise factor is not the size of businesses, but rather their age. According to the Census Bureau, nearly all net job creation in the U.S. since 1980 occurred in firms less than five years old. A Kauffman Foundation report released yesterday shows that as recently as 2007, two-thirds of the jobs created were in such firms. Put more starkly, without new businesses, job creation in the American economy would have been negative for many years." Let's focus the discussion on job growth and innovation. I believe this means less government regulation and disincentives for creating businesses. Without getting into the politics of it all, just think of what is involved to create a business the legal, financial and regulatory risks are overwhelming to most entrepreneurs.