robert lighten is the vice president of purchase and policy at the kaufman foundation. riva is here from grow biz media and brad harrison is the founder and ceo of bhv, a business development firm with a small venture capitalist firm. robert, i want to start with you since it comes out of you. there's been so much talk, you guys put a report out a year ago saying small business is the engine that drives the economy and now one year later you're coming out and saying small businesses aren't even hiring. what does that mean for the economy? >> so actually what our previous report said is that it's not just any small business, it's really new businesses. those are under five years old that have been responsible for the -- for virtually all new jobs since 1980 but we took a electric look and tried to quantify it and asked ourselves is the new job business or is the new firm start-up business engine slowing down and the answer is yes and found that the number of jobs created by new firms started slowing in 2005 and then took a dramatic dip during the recession and really has

what we now have as the crystal clear data in the last several years largely funded by the kaufman foundation out of kansas city and augmented by others. two important findings that i hope you take you that will augment the even more compelling stories about people and families and the appreciation of the human situation and that is, first, 91% of those u.s. born workers in the united states from the 1990's to 2005 were better off because of the immigrant, both documented and undocumented, presence in the united states. their earnings were enhanced by about 2.7%. why? it's complicated and i'll send a link to the commission so you can look at the exciting charts and graphs and do that to your heart's desire. it comes down to a simple idea which is intuitive and you know it. the economy is not a fixed pie. when you expand the labor curve, a simple economist will say the price of labor goes down and we're all hurt. the more people that work here, the more people that are chasing jobs and we're all doomed. wrong. the expansion of the available labor force creates opportunities that did not exist

which is why the kaufman foundation's tim kane wants to offer start-up visas to foreign entrepreneurs. >> something everyone in washington agrees on is high skilled immigrants are great. and this idea of a start up visa would focus on entrepreneurs and let foreign entrepreneurs come in. if they can create three jobs here, why not? >> reporter: and while we're at it, why not give unemployed workers here a chance to become entrepreneurs? seven states now allow workers to get their unemployment benefits while starting their own businesses. there are many creative ideas like job sharing that have been tried out in pilot programs. the challenge now is to find good ideas and make them big ideas. darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington. >> tom: from big ideas to small business. small companies are the engine of u.s. economic growth responsible for as much as 75% of all new jobs. as we look at ways to fix the economy, we found one small business owner who has overcome challenges while benefiting from good timing. >> my dream has always been to own a dance studio. i decided to open