NEW STUDY REVEALS FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESSES REMAIN LARGEST US EMPLOYER

Family Businesses employ 83.3 million people, 59% of the private sector workforce. This is an update on the 2003 groundbreaking study on the impact of #familybusiness contributions to the US economy. Torsten Pieper at @unccharlotte undertook the study with support from @FamilyEnterpri3. The original work by Astrachan and Shankar has been cited over 1400 times, but has not be re-examined in almost 20 years. In the light of the current Covid-19 pandemic, the relevance of this research becomes urgent: While 81% of family businesses suffered during the pandemic; 60% had no changed in jobs and managed to keep all employees, and 69% supported employees with paid leave and benefits. The full text and findings of the report, as well as the associated press release, are available here: "Update 2021: Family Businesses’ Contribution to the U.S. Economy"