BUSINESS MEMO: SBA STATISTICS

The U.S. Small Business Administration offers opportunities for all Americans to start, build and grow their own business in the 21st century.

In 1998, the SBA:

-- maintained a guaranteed loan portfolio of more than $40 billion in loans to 491,000 small business that otherwise would not have had such access to capital?

-- backed more than 47,100 loans totaling a record $10.8 billion to America's small business?

-- made a record 3,456 investments worth $3.24 billion through its venture capital program?

-- helped 6,000 small disadvantaged businesses obtain $5.9 billion in federal contracts?

America's 23 million small businesses employ more than 50 percent of the private workforce, generate more than half of the nation's gross domestic product and are the principal source of new jobs.