Wellington, 24 May 2016 - Small Business Minister Craig Foss today released the latest Small Businesses in New Zealand factsheet, giving a detailed snapshot of how small businesses in New Zealand are making an impact across all industries.

“Small and medium-sized firms make a huge contribution to New Zealand’s economy and this factsheet really illustrates that,” Mr Foss says.

“It reinforces other reports which show that smaller businesses dominate our industries and play a vital role in generating jobs, innovation and overseas income.”

• The factsheet confirms:  97 per cent of all enterprises have fewer than 20 employees·
• These small enterprises employ almost a third of workers in New Zealand.
• They produce an estimated 26 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP.
• Businesses with fewer than 20 employees created almost half of all jobs in the year ending December 2014.
• “Small firms have a greater diversity of ownership structures and tend to be younger than larger firms,” Mr Foss says.

The factsheet is a summary of results from Statistics New Zealand data relating to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Small Businesses in New Zealand is available at: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/business/business-growth-agenda/sectors-reports-series/the-small-business-sector-report-and-factsheet/