The Economic Policy Division of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has studied this issue extensively, and it reports on its findings in the 1993 edition of a publication titled, "What 100 New Jobs Mean to a Community." The report is authored by Martin Lefkowitz, director of special projects for the National Chamber Foundation.

"In the movie 'Field of Dreams,' the main character continually hears a voice telling him, 'Build it, and they will come,"' Lefkowitz writes in the introduction. "As a result, he builds a baseball field in the middle of a cornfield in lowa, and as the movie ends, we see a massive traffic jam leading to his field of dreams.

"This same story has been repeated many times throughout America. Attractions such as Las Vegas, Disney World and the Saturn car plant in Tennessee are examples of the 'build it, and they will come' philosophy," he says.

Lefkowitz describes his publication as "a study of change." It looks at what happens to communities when economic changes occur, and when new businesses open. "The economy of a local community is a complex dynamic system, that is, a system that is undergoing constant change. The community will adapt to that change or die," he says.

As Lefkowitz points out, attracting new businesses is of primary importance to the existence of any community. The dynamic nature of our economy results in a continuous stream of job creation, destruction and reallocation. Key to that entire process is the role played by entrepreneurs, the companies they start, and the jobs eventually created by those companies.

The process of business and job creation is immense and ongoing. According to a study of Census of Business data, only 57% of the firms that were in business in 1982 were still in business in 1987. However, 48% more businesses were formed, and there was a net increase of 430,000 businesses during that five-year period.

Over the two-year period from 1987 to 1989, 24% of all firms went out of business, but 26% more firms were established, resulting in a net gain of 111,000 businesses.

"All of us know that new businesses mean more businesses," Lefkowitz writes. "It's as simple as understanding that if we open a new auto plant in a town, the workers will stop for coffee and doughnuts on the way to work, buy gas for their cars and clothes for their families, and do all the normal things that people do as part of their daily lives.

"If a community or state attracts new business, it will tend to attract other new businesses because each firm relies on others to furnish it with goods or services that it needs to perform its functions. The economic spill-over from one business flows to other businesses and to the entire community, state and nation."

Without question, one of the most important building blocks in this interrelated economic web is the individual entrepreneur. The business opportunity that you hope will lead to your own economic independence could well end up playing an important role in the lives of many other people. Just how important can that role be? Consider the following:

* Each new job created in the construction industry generates, on average, 2.86 additional jobs on a countywide basis and 3.21 jobs on a statewide basis.

* A new job in textiles results in another 1.72 jobs in the county and 1.9 jobs in the state in which the original job is created.

* In motor vehicles and equipment, 2.36 additional county jobs and 2.47 statewide positions are generated by each new job created.

* In wholesale trade and retail trade the numbers are 1.78 and 1.4 jobs, respectively, on a countywide basis and 1.93 and 1.47 statewide.

* Financial firms add 1.9 additional jobs to the county employment roll and 2.19 to the state roster for each new position they create.

The list goes on and on, with each new job in primary metals, hotels and amusements, health services, business services and eating and drinking places creating additional new jobs in other segments of the economy.

It's no wonder, then, that most communities are anxious to welcome entrepreneurs who bring the promise of new business and new jobs along with them. If you are planning to start a new business, you might want to consider the following criteria when choosing a location:

• Image. What is the perception of the city or state held by outsiders? How is the quality of life perceived? Is crime a problem? How are the schools and municipal services?
• Labor. This factor can be evaluated in several ways, including on the basis of average hourly wages, the educational level of the labor force, worker "attitude," productivity, unit labor costs and the prevailing state of relations between labor and management.
• Government. Included in this consideration are business tax rates, personal tax rates, other government-related costs of conducting business, whether or not officials project a pro-business attitude and the quality of the services provided by the government.
• Regulatory climate. Such things as licensing procedures, insurance regulations, environmental restrictions, zoning ordinances, etc., should be examined.
• Costs of doing business. Some of the things to look for here include minimum wage laws, the cost of such mandatory programs as workers' compensation, and how such costs compare with other areas.
• Proximity to markets and business services. Depending on the type of business opportunity you are pursuing, the availability of business services, financing and distribution services may have a crucial impact on the day-to-day operation of your business. If that is the case, this should be a primary consideration in choosing a location.

Although there is nearly universal agreement on the importance of jobs, it is difficult to measure the value of one particular job. Many experts stress the importance of manufacturing jobs to the near exclusion of service jobs. However, both types of jobs are important.

The manufacturing sector in this country has been declining in terms of sheer numbers of jobs. There were fewer people employed in manufacturing in 1991 than there were in 1966.

However, worker productivity has increased so dramatically over that period that U.S. manufacturers continue to supply about the same percentage of the world's manufactured goods as they did 40 years ago -- despite popular misconceptions to the contrary.

Still, manufacturing is important, and Lefkowitz uses the example of a telephone to illustrate how the impact of a manufacturing job on the overall economy goes well beyond the immediate numbers.

"The phone itself represents about $30 worth of manufactured products," he says. "Yet each year most people purchase hundreds of dollars worth of services in local and long distance calls that would not be possible to purchase without the use of that $30 manufactured product."

The computer industry is another good example of the interplay between the manufacturing and service sectors in today's economy.

The 1991 value of the U.S. market for personal computers totaled about $31.5 billion. The market for software, which is considered a service rather than a product, amounted to $20.9 billion -- almost two-thirds the value of PC shipments! What's more, the PC itself is virtually useless to most people without the availability of appropriate software.

Clearly, all types of jobs are important, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's study does not seek to differentiate them by type in determining the value of a job. Instead, it attempts to quantify the various elements that are required for job creation.