Women-Owned Businesses On Rise In Riverside County, Inland Empire

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Ca -- The rate of growth of women-owned businesses in the Inland Empire outpaced overall business growth during the Great Recession, according to a report released today by the UC Riverside Center for Economic Forecasting and Development.

The center, which opened last year as a satellite of the UCR School of Business Administration, conducted a study of U.S. Census Bureau data from 2007 to 2012 to identify what areas of the regional economy were showing promise.

Women-owned businesses fell into the pro-growth category, according to researchers.

Figures showed that the number of women-run businesses in the IE shot up 35 percent, while statewide, the growth rate was about 27 percent -- roughly the same for the nation, according to the study. By comparison, the regional
growth rate for all businesses was 8 percent, and 5 percent statewide.

Nationally, it was 3.7 percent.

Based on the census data, which relied on surveys, women-owned enterprises comprise 39 percent of all businesses in the inland region, researchers said.

"This data tells us that women-owned businesses have not only proliferated, but have done so between 2007 and 2012 despite the intervening recession, a particularly difficult economic period for business creation,'' said UCR economist Chris Thornberg. He said previous census data put the number of women-run enterprises in the Inland Empire at 29.6 percent.

While female proprietors in the region expanded payrolls by 7.1 percent during the study period, employment throughout the inland area as a whole dropped 5.6 percent, according to figures.

However, the actual number of people employed in women-run businesses in the IE comes to just 14.1 percent of the total regional workforce, figures showed.

The report's findings pointed to health care and social assistance-oriented businesses as the favored start-ups among women. The region's principal industry, logistics and distribution, remains predominately run by men.
Revenue generated at women-owned enterprises in the IE grew by just 5.8 percent, compared to 9.1 percent for all of inland Southern California businesses, according to the study.

It also found that women-owned businesses statewide contributed only 13.4 percent to state revenues -- even though they made up 37.8 percent of all businesses in California. The number of women-run businesses nationwide, according to the census data, stood at 36.3 percent.

--City News Service/Morguefile image