Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
More businesses, but not more jobs
Small business | Jobs
November 25, 2024 – The number of new micro-, small, and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) in the United States increased 54 percent between 2019 and 2021. This addition of newcomers, however, did not translate into a boost in employment, as nearly as many businesses closed during that time, senior partner Olivia White and coauthors explain. The proportion of workers employed by MSMEs stayed largely stagnant, suggesting that the industry structure might be gradually changing, with some MSMEs growing into larger ones. Click through the interactive to see more.
To read the report, see “America’s small businesses: Time to think big,” October 2, 2024.
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Visual form
Hex-map dashboard.
Layout / body structure
The visual is centered on a US state hex map with a tab strip across the top. Read the selected map first, then use the tabs labeled Firm, Employment, and Employment share to switch the same geography through different measures of MSME change.
What is being compared
It compares changes in micro, small, and medium-size enterprises across US states between 2019 and 2021, and the structure indicates that the same state grid can also compare employment and employment-share views. The map is designed to show how business formation and job growth diverge across the country rather than staying aligned.
Measurement system
The active Firm view is measured as percentage change and uses a color scale that runs from negative values in gray to stronger positive values in progressively darker blues. Each hexagon is one state, and the legend at the top encodes the magnitude of change.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The visual is built as a state-by-state hex map, with Alaska, Hawaii, DC, and the national aggregate separated from the mainland cluster. A tab selector sits above the map, making the graphic read like a dashboard where the same layout can be reused across multiple business and employment measures.
Main takeaway from the visual
The visual shows that the number of firms rose across much of the map even though the page title stresses that employment did not rise in the same way. In the active Firm view, most state hexagons are blue and many are in the upper half of the positive range, which makes the broad increase in business count easy to see.
Key standout values or extremes
The legend runs up to roughly 16 percent on the positive side, and many states appear in the mid-to-dark blue range. A few states are neutral or negative, shown in gray, while places such as Delaware and several Southeastern states appear among the darker positive cells in the selected firm-growth view.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This lets the reader move between Firm, Employment, and Employment share views while keeping the same state hex-map layout. The tabs change the metric shown on the map rather than moving to a different page, so the comparison is meant to be done by toggling the measure and rereading the same geography.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.