By Susan Brown
CAMEO Rural Consultant
I heard a part of the debate between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman recently. Meg bemoaned businesses moving out of California because of our unfriendly business policies. She should check out this report Business Relocation and Homegrown Jobs by Jed Kolko, of the Public Policy Institute of California. Kolko observed “that business relocation—the movement of business establishments from one state to another—accounts for a very small share of California’s employment fluctuations.” He concluded that “relocation accounts for a smaller share of job gains and losses in California than in most other states….”
If Meg is interested in business development and job creation, she should also read, Very Small Businesses Create Very Large Change by Philip Borden and Terry Bibbens. Their data shows that “the real heart of job growth in the small business community is businesses with fewer than five employees.
We’ve spent a lot recently on saving Wall Street, banks and the auto industry. I wonder how many jobs those industries have created in the past year.
Read more blogs from Susan Brown at http://susanrileybrown.com/2010/10