Juicing Job Creation

“If 1 million more women-owned businesses added two or three employees each, a very reasonable goal, we could create up to 3 million more jobs.”

Worse-than-expected jobs data in March left policymakers, candidates, economists and business leaders grappling once again with ways to keep the economic recovery from stalling. Though many options have been explored, one job creation strategy continues to be overlooked. That strategy relates to a specific segment of women-owned businesses euphemistically called the “Missing Middle.”

The focus of past and current U.S. public policy on women-owned businesses has been on helping women start companies. As evidenced by the growth in the number of new women-owned firms, this approach has been fairly successful. Today there are 8.1 million women-owned firms. But a very small percentage of them are employer firms. Read how we can change that in our commentary published in the Kansas City Star.