Recession, Recovery, and the role of Entrepreneurs
September 9th, 2009 by Alex_GoldupRejoice! The recession is over, at least according to data released by the – long acronym alert- NIESR (National Institute of Economic and Social Research), which shows that GDP rose by an estimated 0.2 per cent in the three months to August.
So, that’s it folks! Well done: we can all stop worrying.
Or can we? Alex Brummer – City Editor for the Daily Mail – warns us not to pop the corks just yet. In his view, unemployment will remove a great deal of spending power and suppress consumer demand.
Of course, nobody wants to celebrate prematurely. However, a focus on unemployment generally stems from a focus on big companies – those same big companies that are shedding jobs. But what about smaller enterprises: those that are starting up and creating jobs?
A skewed focus on the fortune and fate of larger companies distracts from the positive role that is played – and will continue to be played – by entrepreneurs. According to one survey, newly-created businesses generate roughly eighty per cent of new jobs. We can assume that – if the trend among larger companies to shed jobs continues – that entrepreneurs will provide an even larger share of new employment opportunities in years to come.
So entrepreneurs will play a critical role in recovery, particularly in mitigating the effects of unemployment.
Better still, there is every reason to be confident that entrepreneurial ambitions have not been dented by the recession. Research from the Global Entrepreneurship Survey has shown that the number of young people who believe that they have what it takes to set up their own business has risen by 21% since 2002.
Meanwhile, initiatives such as the all-singing, all-enterprising Global Entrepreneurship Week continue to promote a climate that encourages entrepreneurship.
So, don’t pop the champagne just yet, but remain positive: recovery is coming, and entrepreneurs will drive it…
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