ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 TAG: 9603270030
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
One out of every four American workers is employed by a business owned by a woman, a women's group says, and women own more than one-third of all businesses in the nation.
The National Foundation for Women Business Owners said Tuesday there now are 7.95 million companies owned by women, up from 4.48 million in 1987. The 78 percent growth dwarfs the 47 percent rate of increase for all U.S. firms. In Virginia, according to the report, 189,000 companies are owned by women, up 84 percent since 1987.
Sales by women's firms have jumped 236 percent, to $2.28 trillion from $681 billion in 1987. Employment shot up to 18.5 million workers - 26 percent of the U.S. work force - from nearly 6.6 million nine years ago.
``Sales and employment generated by women-owned businesses have skyrocketed over the past nine years,'' said Susan Peterson, foundation chairwoman and owner of a Washington production company.
``The sheer strength of the numbers reaffirms that women business owners are powerful catalysts for promoting the health of our economy,'' she added.
Julie Weeks, the foundation's research director, attributed the rapid growth partly to the steady increase of working women since World War II.
``After such a long time, women are moving into ownership,'' she said, adding that some women start their own businesses when they find ``they have advanced as far as they can go.''
``Also, you have younger women in business school ... or seeking some other professional degree thinking of entrepreneurship right off the bat,'' she added. ``And some daughters are inheriting businesses from their parents,'' who in previous generations would pass them to sons instead.
The report, ``1996 Facts on Women-Owned Businesses,'' was based on new data from the Census Bureau.
The findings closely parallel those of a 1995 foundation study by Dun & Bradstreet Information Services based on information on the 1991-94 period from the Census Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service, the Small Business Administration and D&B Information Services.
The report showed that the number of companies owned by women is increasing in every state, led by Nevada with a growth rate of 130 percent since 1987. Other increases included Georgia, up 112 percent; New Mexico, up 108 percent; Florida, up 106 percent; and Idaho, up 104 percent.
``The growth in the number of women-owned businesses continues to be dramatic across the nation,'' said Weeks.
California has the largest number of female-owned businesses, 1.082 million. North Dakota and the District of Columbia had the fewest, 19,000 each.
The largest share of companies owned by women - 52 percent - was in the service sector, the report said. An additional 19 percent was in retail trade; 10 percent was in finance, insurance or real estate.
But the report also said the most explosive growth was in nontraditional industries.
The number of female-owned construction companies, for instance, jumped 171 percent between 1987 and 1996, to 324,000. The wholesale trade sector saw a 157 percent gain in female-owned firms, to 293,000.
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB