Data shows state's business community primarily made up of small businesses

Workforce West Virginia recently released a summary of businesses in West Virginia, showing in detail their number of employees. The results overwhelmingly show that West Virginia is a state made up of small businesses.

The numbers were released by WorkForce West Virginia in late August and are based on employment data as of March 2009. 

Here is the information in detail from Workforce West Virginia. Additional Workforce West Virginia data can be found online at www.workforcewv.org, under the Labor Market Information link.

Number of Employers					Number of Establishments
Private Sector Only					Private Sector Only
West Virginia					West Virginia
March 2009					March 2009
Size	Units	Employment	Percent of Total		Size	Units	Employment	Percent of Total
0	4,648	0	0.0%		0	4,977	0	0.0%
1-4	16,319	33,790	6.1%		1-4	18,970	40,658	7.4%
5-9	6,318	41,584	7.6%		5-9	9,291	61,517	11.2%
10-19	3,839	51,594	9.4%		10-19	5,917	79,266	14.4%
20 - 49	2,548	77,401	14.1%		20 - 49	3,452	103,509	18.8%
50 - 99	916	62,994	11.4%		50 - 99	1,179	80,218	14.6%
100 - 249	549	84,330	15.3%		100 - 249	507	74,791	13.6%
250 - 499	152	51,482	9.4%		250 - 499	129	44,811	8.1%
500 - 999	78	55,946	10.2%		500 - 999	38	26,431	4.8%
1000+	48	91,275	16.6%		1000+	24	39,143	7.1%
Total	35,415	550,396	100.0%		Total	44,484	550,344	100.0%
Note: An establishment is a single physical location, such as an individual store or restaurant. An employer may have any number of establishments at different locations. Firms which do not have employees covered by unemployment compensation are not included. Firms are sized according to their employment in West Virginia. This means that a firm with many thousands of employees nationwide, but only a few salespeople in West Virginia, is counted as a very small firm.
WORKFORCE West Virginia
Research, Information, and Analysis
August 20, 2009