How many new jobs do small businesses create?

Here's one of those topics that gets debated in policy-wonk circles that's fairly obvious to the rest of us: Most new jobs are created by small businesses. Via USA Today's Jim Hopkins comes a link to a .PDF newsletter from the SBA's Office of Advocacy that highlights the job-creation numbers from the most recent year with data, 2003. Writes Jim: "Employer firms with fewer than 500 employees created 1,990,326 net new jobs, whereas large firms with 500 or more employees shed 994,667 net jobs. In other words, small businesses created nearly two million jobs after you subtract those they eliminated. On the other hand, big companies -- defined as those with 500 or more workers -- cut far more jobs than they created."