Government Sets Contracting Record for Women-Owned Small Businesses

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced that the Federal Government surpassed the five percent contracting goal for Women-Owned small Businesses (WSOB) for the first time ever.

Now, according to the SBA, the five percent threshold is no longer a goal - its a foundation from which to build. According to SBA, women-owned businesses already employ eight million American workers but when it comes to receiving Government contracts, women are still under-represented. To counter this, the SBA added 36 new industry categories where women can now compete for set-aside contracts and sole-source awards.

The SBA announcement included the following facts:

• In fiscal year 2015, 5.05% or $17.8 billion of all federal small business eligible contracting dollars were awarded to WOSBs.
• The Federal Government surpassed its 23 percent small business procurement goal for the third straight year, awarding an all-time high of 25.75 percent or $90.7 billion.
•  For the fourth consecutive year, the Federal Government exceeded its contracting goal for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) and Small Disadvantaged Businesses (SDBs), achieving 3.93 percent or $13.8 billion and 10.06 percent or 35.4 billion respectively.

If you would like to read the complete SBA press release, click here.