Business
African-American purchasing power continues to grow
Recently released data that reports black buying power has increased from US$957.3 billion in 2010 to an expected US$1.1 trillion by 2015. Although this data from the State of the African-American Consumer Report reflects a positive growth in blacks’ disposable income, the growing failure of blacks to do significant business with other blacks casts a dark shadow over the news.
Between 2002 and 2007, the number of black-owned non-farm U.S. businesses increased by 60.5 percent to 1.9 million, making these businesses one of the fastest growing segments of the economy, according to U.S. Census data.
This is more than three times the national business ownership rate of 18 percent.
Additionally, these black-owned firms employed 921,032 people, 0.8 percent of total employment, and generated US$137.5 billion in receipts, 0.5 percent of all receipts, according to U.S. Census data.
