New business filings down, but still portend job growth

Rich Wobbekind
Rich Wobbekind
Wayne Williams
Wayne Williams

The latest analysis of new business filings in Colorado reflects slower activity, but continues to forecast job growth over the next two quarters.

A total of 25,164 new businesses registered with the secretary of state’s office during the third quarter. New business filings were down 3.5 percent from the second quarter and nearly 9 percent from the third quarter of 2014.

For the 12-month period ending in September, 102,724 new business filings were posted in Colorado. The number of business entities in good standing in the state has increased 6 percent over the past year.

The Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder prepares a quarterly report on new business formation based on information from the secretary of state’s office.

“Although new filings are down quarter over quarter and year over year, the level is sufficient to sustain continued growth in the economy, albeit at a slower pace,” said Richard Wobbekind, executive director of the research division at the Leeds School of Business.

Business formation in the third quarter indicates job growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 and first quarter of 2016, the report states.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate slipped another two-tenths of a point to 4 percent in September as nonfarm payrolls increased 2,000.The largest gains were in the leisure and hospitality, professional and business services and manufacturing sectors. Over the past year, the jobless rate has retreated a half point as nonfarm payrolls have increased 41,500. The largest year-over-year job gains have occurred in the education and health services, leisure and hospitality and constructor sectors.

Wayne Williams, secretary of state, said Colorado is nearing a milestone of having 600,000 business entities in good standing.

A temporary fee holiday a year ago that reduced business filing fees to $1 helped to increase new business filings at that time and also contributed to 114,676 entity renewals during the third quarter of 2015. Renewals are up nearly 5.4 percent from the second quarter and have reached almost 458,000 for the 12-month period ending in September.