THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120279
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
The number of black-owned businesses has increased sharply, topping 620,000 in 1992, though most are small service and retail firms with receipts under $10,000.
Black-owned businesses increased 46 percent, from 424,165 in 1987 to 620,192 in 1992, the Census Bureau said Monday. That was well ahead of the 26 percent increase in all businesses in the country.
At the same time, receipts by these companies jumped 63 percent, from $19.8 billion to $32.2 billion. That is comparable to a 67 percent increase in receipts for all businesses in the nation.
``A strong minority business community benefits America as a whole,'' said Joan Parrott-Fonseca, director of the Commerce Department's Minority Business Development Agency. ``Simply put, our nation's diversity will prove to be our meal ticket into the 21st century.''
Agency analysts suggested that the strong growth in the number of businesses was fueled by blacks who retired at relatively younger ages and launched businesses.
The result was a large number of small companies. The report noted that 94 percent of black-owned firms are individual proprietorships.
Some 56 percent of black-owned firms had receipts of under $10,000, the report said, while just 3,000 had receipts of $1 million or more.
Overall, black-owned firms accounted for 3.6 percent of all businesses in the United States in 1992 but just 1 percent of sales and receipts.
Black-owned firms were concentrated in the service industries, which accounted for 54 percent of these businesses, compared with 45 percent for all businesses. Retail trade was the second largest share, both for blacks and all businesses, at 14 percent.
California had the most black-owned businesses, 68,968 in 1992, making up 3.1 percent of businesses in the state. New York was second at 51,312, or 4.4 percent followed by Texas with 50,008, 4.0 percent.
The highest percentage of black-owned businesses was recorded by the District of Columbia, where the 10,111 firms account for 28.6 percent of all businesses.
Second was Maryland at 10.9 percent (35,758 businesses) and Mississippi with 14,067 businesses making up 10.4 percent of the states' firms. by CNB