PROVIDENCE – The Providence-Warwick metro area is one of the most dependent on small businesses compared to other regions in its population bracket, according to a national report released on June 24.
The analysis by financial consulting website Smartest Dollar ranked the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA metro area in the fifth-highest spot for large metro areas.
Drawing from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the report attributed the Providence-Warwick area’s ranking to factors such as 51.7% of the area’s employees working at small businesses, small businesses providing 47.2% of the area’s payroll, and a prevalence of 205.9 small businesses per 10,000 people.
It also reported a total of 33,442 small businesses with employees in the Providence-Warwick metro area, 332,357 small business employees and an annual payroll of $15.2 billion at small businesses.
By comparison, the report states, small businesses employ 46.4% of the workforce nationally, and provide 39.4% of an area’s payroll.
That’s down from the late 1980s, when small businesses employed 54.5% of working Americans and comprised 48.6% of the country’s payrolls.
Smartest Dollar defined a large metro area as having a population of at least 1,000,000, and a small business as having fewer than 500 employees.
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Fla., was found to be the most dependent on small businesses for large metro areas in the U.S. That area had 53.1% of employees working at small businesses, total payroll was at small businesses was 47.6%, small businesses with 10,000 or more people was 278.9, total number of small businesses with employees was 172,172, total employees at small businesses was 1.2 million and total annual payroll at small businesses was $56.1 billion.
Nationally, Rhode Island received a composite score of almost 70 for reliance on small businesses, while Massachusetts and Connecticut both ranked below 60. Northern and rural states tended to have the highest reliance on small businesses, according to the analysis.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
