Useful Stats

An SSTI analysis of business R&D employment data from the National Science Foundation’s recently updated 2019 Business Enterprise R&D (BERD) Survey finds that nationally in 2019, R&D employment at private businesses accounted for 8.6 percent of total employment. The states where the business R&D employment shares of total employment were the greatest in 2019 were Washington (20.9 percent); Massachusetts (19.3 percent); California (17.7 percent); New Hampshire (14.7 percent); and Michigan (12.7 percent). The analysis builds on our previous examination of business R&D expenditures and focuses on R&D employment at private businesses and the level of total business R&D expenditures per R&D employee by state in 2019.

The states where business R&D employment accounted for the lowest shares of total employment in 2019 were Tennessee (2.9 percent); Arkansas (2.7 percent); Mississippi (2.7 percent); Louisiana (2.3 percent); and, Hawaii (2.2 percent).

Private sector investment into research and development (R&D) is a critical component of innovation, new product development, and regional economic vitality. As a substantial performer and funder of R&D in the United States, the strength of private industry’s R&D activity in a region can provide an indication of the region’s capacity for developing and bringing innovative technologies to market. Using data from the recent release of the National Science Foundation’s 2019 Business Enterprise R&D (BERD) Survey, this SSTI analysis shows that while private companies nationally paid for the greatest share of total business R&D expenditures themselves in 2019, this was not the case for all states.

This edition of SSTI’s Useful Stats examines the expected allocation of approximately $8.5 billion in State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) funding by state and allocation category based on the Department of the Treasury’s recent guidance update. For the first time, these allocation amounts include how much a state is receiving for the program’s new funds to support businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals (SEDI).

The interactive map below shows how much funding states are likely to receive — as indicated by the degree of blue shading. California stands to receive the greatest amount of funding ($1.182 billion), followed by New York ($502 million), Florida ($489 million), Texas ($472 million), and Illinois ($355 million). All combined, Tribal governments, which are newly-eligible to the program, are also estimated to receive more than $709 million in total SSBCI funding.

Support for small companies has long been a pillar of federal and state policies meant to drive business formation, job creation, and the resulting spillover economic benefits for regional economies. The debate remains, however, about whether smaller or larger businesses play an outsized role in the nation’s economy. This edition of Useful Stats provides some context to the argument, finding that although smaller and newer establishments accounted for the greatest amount of total job creation, job losses from small business closures reduced the group’s net job creation significantly, leaving larger companies to account for the greatest share of net job creation in 2019.

Innovations are often born from small businesses, operating with few employees, if any at all, to bring new technologies and processes to market. However, new small businesses frequently fail and are not the only source of innovation. Understanding the regional dynamics of business creation can help leaders better support their regional innovation economies, and this edition of Useful Stats builds on our previous analyses of net establishment creation and net job creation by state and by industry to explore net establishment creation by state and by establishment size (as measured by the number of employees) for 2019.

Understanding the industry-level dynamics of business and job creation can help pinpoint which industries in regional economies may be hotspots for innovation activity. This edition of Useful Stats builds on previous SSTI analysis of business and job creation by state and examines data from the Census Bureau’s recently updated Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) on net establishment and job creation in 2019 at the state and industry levels.

Specifically, this analysis examines net establishment creation (calculated as the difference between new establishment openings and establishment closures) and net job creation (calculated as the difference between the jobs gained from existing plus new establishments and the jobs lost to existing plus closing establishments) at the 2-digit NAICS code level. The data serves as a useful baseline of where the economy stood prior to the pandemic’s start in 2020.

Higher levels of business creation can be linked to the presence of innovation in a state through entrepreneurial activity and transitioning to new industries, and this edition of Useful Stats examines data from the Census Bureau’s recently updated Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) on net establishment formation and the job creation stemming from those establishments in 2019. While figures vary widely among the states, most saw growth in both net establishment creation and net job creation in 2019; this data is prior to the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. This analysis also provides additional context by examining the long-term state trends in these metrics from 1978 to 2019.

Understanding how federal funding for the science and engineering (S&E) activities of the nation’s institutions of higher education (IHEs) is distributed locally within states can help innovation leaders develop programs and policies tailored more carefully to the varying conditions of regional innovation economies. This edition of Useful Stats builds on our previous state-level analyses of federal S&E support to IHEs by type of S&E activity and by funding agency, using 2019 data on individual institutions from the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions, providing a detailed city-level view of the distribution of federal S&E funding to IHEs within states.

Federal funding is a major source of support for the science and engineering (S&E) activities of the nation’s institutions of higher education (IHEs). This week’s edition of Useful Stats shows that in 2019 (the most recent year for which data is available), the vast majority — 87.6 percent or $33.4 billion— of that federal support came from only three agencies: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Defense (DoD). This analysis builds on our previous article using NSF’s data from the Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions to show that while the remaining agencies contributed relatively little to the national S&E effort of IHEs, there was still a wide range in the mix of agency funding at the state level in 2019.

Developing local assets and nurturing local talent in science and engineering (S&E) is paramount to productive innovation economies. Institutions of higher education (IHEs) are arguably the most important elements of these local knowledge-capital assets — housing physical R&D infrastructure, training new scientists and engineers, and creating and disseminating new knowledge across the academic, public, and private sectors. As such, understanding how federal funding to support S&E at IHEs is dispersed across states can help local innovation leaders develop programs and policies to continue growing their local innovation economies.

To assist in this goal, this edition of Useful Stats explores data from the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions. Specifically, this analysis examines state-level data for total S&E obligations to IHEs and the shares of total S&E funding by type of activity in 2019.

Editor's note: SSTI discovered that NASA updated their data which was used in this article after its publication. Specifically, the update included previously omitted 2020 application and awards data for Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, and Nevada; and 2014 data for Iowa. While the changes to the data were minute, we strive to provide the most accurate and reliable data available. As such, the article and the interactive graphic below have been updated to reflect these changes.

Recession can drive increases in entrepreneurship as laid off workers look for other opportunities and start their own businesses. Increases in business startup activity throughout the 2020 recession were greater than any time in the 15 years prior. This edition of Useful Stats examines data from the Census Bureau’s Business Formation Statistics (BFS) series covering business initiation activity as indicated by applications for an Employer Identification Number (EIN). Specifically, this analysis examines high-propensity business applications (HBA*) per 1,000 residents per state — business applications that are associated with a high rate of business formation — for the 15-year period from 2006 to 2020.