Chamber of Commerce CEO touts small business: ‘state of American business is local’ [Video]

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne P. Clark delivered a speech Thursday on the “State of American Business” which highlighted the local impact of businesses and the importance of small businesses.

Small businesses are responsible for employing nearly half of the American workforce and driving about 43.5% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), according to a Chamber report published last year. Clark’s speech emphasized the importance of small businesses – including those like franchises that some might not consider small businesses – to local economies.

“The State of American Business is local because businesses serve people where they are. And if you think about it, that makes all business local,” Clark explained. “That’s true, of course, of the small businesses that line Main Streets and the locally headquartered businesses that employ hundreds, or even thousands, of people in a community and drive its economic ecosystem.”

“It’s also true of the …