Elgin Area Chamber Of Commerce: Even Before COVID, Starting A Business Was Hard

Elgin IL

26 October, 2021

3:31 AM

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Press release from the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce: October 25, 2021   By Rohit Diwadkar CoStar News   As the pandemic has upended a variety of business sectors lately, there's been much discussion about whether the chaos might induce entrepreneurs to start new companies to replace and improve upon what was.   Such a spurt has been a long time in coming. The 2010s marked one of the least entrepreneurial periods in U.S. history, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2019, the startup rate — the percent of startups compared to overall firms in the economy, was unchanged for the fourth year in a row at 8.2%. That same year, the U.S. saw the highest number of new startups since 2008. However, 459,000 firms failed in 2019, meaning the U.S. economy did not generate sufficient new firms to replace those that were lost. Startups employed 2.4 million workers in 2019, a high point in the decade. However, startups' 1.8% share of total U.S. employment in 2019 remained flat, near all-time lows, following a long-term decline since the late 1980s. Many Western and Southeastern states saw startup rates higher than the national 8.2% average in 2019, a bump that often coincided with higher state population growth. Nevada (10.4%), Florida (10.2%), Utah (10%), Idaho (9.6%), and Texas (9.6%) were the top five states with the highest startup rates, while Nebraska (6%), Wisconsin (5.9%), Iowa (5.8%), West Virginia (5.5%) and Vermont (5.3%) were the five states with the lowest startup rates. In 2019, the transportation and warehousing and information sectors recorded the highest startup rates in the country. But at the other end of the list, the heavier, capital-intensive manufacturing and utilities sectors registered the lowest startup rates in the economy. Some worry the country's broader demographic transformation into an older, slower-growing nation with fewer births, fewer immigrants and fewer prime-age workers suggests that American entrepreneurship could face serious decline in growth for years to come. Others take heart from the recent jump in venture capital fundraising taking place around the country in the midst of the coronavirus health crisis. Source: CoStar Group, www.costar.com This press release was produced by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author's own.