Potential Problem with Survey Sample

I still think that surveying the HR professionals at the largest companies will be a good way to get feedback, since those companies employ the most people, and they probably see the greatest number of job applications, and range of applicant skills. But, there seems to be a trend in the type of industry these large companies operate in (primarily healthcare and manufacturing) which is certainly not representative of the whole gamut of SC employers.

And, some of the literature suggests that small, entreprenurial, fast-growing companies have a much larger positive impact of employment growth than the large companies South Carolina lawmakers tend to recruit with tax incentives, etc. If small businesses have a greater ROI for our state, and I'm interested in ROI, then it makes sense that I would try to poll a larger sample more demonstrative of the range of employment opportunities available, including as many small businesses as possible.

I hypothesize that these smaller firms are more knowledge-based than most positions available at the large manufacturers, and thus could benefit from a more educated, literate workforce. The line of reasoning: a more literate workforce will help these "high impact" small businesses grow, which in turns stimulates the economy and local employment rate more than maintaining a large lower-skilled workforce for big manufacturing corporations does (especially since many of these big corporations are foreign-owned rather than locally-owned).

Maybe I could get a list of small business owners through SC's Small Business Association, or USC's Small Business Development Center.

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UPDATE

In 2010, partner firms with the SC Manufacturing Extension Partnership created 1,269 jobs. Firms working with the SC Small Business Development Center created 2,735. So, it does seem as though small business can have more of an impact on the employment rate than large manufacturing corporations, and I should definitely try to survey the small business owners as well.