Kauffman Foundation, on new job creation

It’s been a while since we’ve had a chance to look through some of the research that the Kauffman Foundation has conducted recently, which is a real shame since these guys do indeed publish some very interesting reports. Back in 2007, we reviewed a rather lengthy report titled “On the Road to an Entrepreneurial Economy” which focused on policies the government should institute to promote innovative entrepreneurship. With the holiday season here and news on the semiconductor startup front rather on the slow side, we came across a rather short but relevant report that focuses on future job creation. Titled “Where Will the Jobs Come From?” this report examines the job creation patterns using the United Stated Census Bureau data from the last few years. The report contains a myriad of charts showing job creation vs. company age, job creation vs. company size, job creation vs. industry sector and so on, but the overall findings can be summarized in a single sentence: While large companies are important since they are part of a complex economic system in which the acquisitions they fund are essential exit strategies for a lot of startup companies, it is the actual startups which especially early on in their life cycle have been the major job creation engine in the United States. As such, policy makers ought to places most emphasis on enabling entrepreneurs in creating these young firms. The above is clearly somewhat of an oversimplification of the findings, but as noted previously, this report is rather on the short side and can be easily read over a cup of joe.