Measuring the Middle Market
A Driving Force in the U.S. Economy
Home to millions of businesses including 134 of the 500 largest companies in the world as of 2023, the might and scale of the United States economy is widely known.[footnote val="1" id="1"]
What Companies Make Up the U.S. Middle Market?
The term middle market is used to describe companies with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion per year.[footnote val="3" id="3"]
How Large is the U.S. Middle Market?
The middle market is made up of nearly 200,000 companies that represent one-third of the private sector GDP and employ roughly 48 million workers in total.[footnote val="4" id="4"]
How Resilient is the U.S. Middle Market?
More than half of U.S. middle market companies have been in business for more than 30 years and are, on average, less financially leveraged than large companies.[footnote val="5" id="5"] During the economic downturn from 2007 to 2010, surviving middle market companies created more than 2 million new jobs, while surviving larger companies shed nearly 4 million jobs.[footnote val="6" id="6"] The U.S. middle market continues to thrive in the post-pandemic era with record-setting proportions of companies reporting year-over-year improvements in overall company performance, increases in revenue growth and expansion in the size of the workforce. The rate of year over-year revenue growth reached a new all-time high (12.4%) with 55% of middle market businesses experiencing double-digit growth compared to 2022.[footnote val="7" id="7"] Given the substantial contributions to the U.S. economy, one might expect that the market segment would garner more attention; however, the middle market lacks familiarity for many investors.
Despite the unfamiliarity among the general public, this market segment presents unique opportunities and is growing. In fact, the average rate of revenue growth of such companies is 12.4%.[footnote val="8" id="8"]
How Do Middle Market Companies Secure Financing?
To learn more, please contact your financial professional.
