Black Business Owners Contribute More Than $2.8B To Cincinnati’s Economy

A new study from Cincinnati shows that Black jobs are growing and thriving and contributing billions of dollars to the local and regional economies.

Recent data from the Alpaugh Family Economics Center at the University of Cincinnati reveals that Black-owned businesses supported $2.8 billion in economic activity. The report is a continuation of the original study conducted in 2021, which was the first study of its kind in the country to quantify Chamber of Commerce data about Black-owned businesses, according to City Beat. The new figures show increased contributions and impact, as data from the original study, first released in 2023, showed that Black-owned businesses contributed $1.4 billion to the economy.

“Business ownership provides an opportunity to build wealth for Black or African American individuals,” the latest study report read. “Such an opportunity is particularly significant for Black or African American families, whose median net worth of $24,100 was 7.8 times lower than the median net worth of white families in 2019.”

With the data researchers collected, they developed a database of 1,417 Black-owned businesses throughout Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky. When breaking down the numbers, Black-owned businesses supported over 16,400 jobs with more than $635 million in earnings. These businesses also generated $1.4 billion of direct sales and employed more than 9,000 individual jobs with earnings of at least $341 million. They also generated $34.3 million in profits and sales tax revenue for state and local jurisdictions.

Across the region, “Other Services,” “Professional Scientific and Technical Services,” and “Retail” contained the most Black-owned businesses. These industries represented more than 47% of the companies in the eight-county region researchers examined.

These numbers are a glimpse of hope that change could be on the horizon for addressing the wealth gap in Cincinnati for Black residents compared to their white counterparts.

According to The Greater Cincinnati Foundation , Black women and men earn an average of $16 per hour, compared to $22 and $24 per hour for white men and white women.