State agency: Small business in Nevada is flourishing, not floundering

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2013 | 1:55 p.m.

Small businesses in Nevada have bounced back after the recession, according to the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

The agency said today that there were 71,500 businesses with less than 100 workers in the first quarter of this year. That’s an increase of 2,100 compared with the same quarter in 2012.

Department economist Bill Anderson said there have been some media reports that the small business is on the decline. But the facts don’t show that, he said.

“The bottom line is that employment in Nevada’s small businesses with less than 100 workers has been on the mend for more than two years,” he said.

The number of employees in small business has increased by 27,300 since bottoming out in 2010. In the first three months of this year, there were 537,000 workers employed by small businesses, the department said. There are 990,400 employees in the overall private sector.

Anderson said small business still faces problem and added, “As the overall economic recovery moves forward, many hurdles present themselves.”