Colorado sees a record number of new businesses launch in 4Q

Leaving multiple unfilled jobs openings behind them and ignoring the economic storm clouds ahead of them, Coloradans filed to create a record number of new businesses last quarter, according to a report Monday from the Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and the University of Colorado Boulder’s Leeds Business Research Division.

Time will tell if the state is witnessing a doomed Armada of entrepreneurship or explorers sailing toward a brighter economic future, but an unprecedented 48,806 new entity filings were made in the fourth quarter, a 37.2% increase from the fourth quarter of 2021 and an 11.8% jump from the third quarter.

A majority of those fourth-quarter filings, 42,003, were for limited liability companies, the type of business entity favored by sole proprietors. Those were up 50.2% over the past year, more than three times the 15.2% annual growth rate averaged over the past five years.

For the year, the state counted 175,650 new…

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