New business starts in February
Can February 2013 beat the record numbers for new incorporations and new business starts from February 2012? Does February continue to support the trend for new company starts that has been projected? Find out below.
This graph shows the number of new entries into the commercial register.
After the record breaking numbers for new business starts from February 2012 it was speculated that the amount of activity the following year would not be ale to keep pace. With 3,336 new entries into the commercial register 87 less companies were incorporated across Switzerland compared to 2012 (3,423) which confirmed the speculation. This decrease represents approximately a 2.5% drop from the previous year, however, it should be noted that February 2013 had one less work day than the same month the year prior. If the daily trend from February 2013 were projected to follow the same amount of work days that occurred in 2012, the projected numbers for 2013 would have exceeded those from the previous year. As such, the amount of incorporation activity this year can be viewed as positive.
To put this in perspective we will briefly look at the numbers for the different language regions and any significant cantonal activity. Compared to February of the previous year Ticino is the only language area that has seen a increase in entries (adding 16, a 6.3% increase). German-speaking Switzerland saw a loss (losing 64, a 2.9% decrease) and the Romandie as well (losing 39, a 4.1% decrease) which account for the overall decrease nationally. The main cantons showing the largest decrease in entries were Bern (-27 entries at -9.9%), Nidwalden* (-22 entries at -75.9%), Solothurn* (-20 entries at -23.8%) and Geneva (-19 entries at -6.7%). Aside from these strong reductions, the canton of Zurich showed a marked increase (101 more entries at +18%).
*Small numbers of entries make even few changes in absolute numbers have a large relative impact.
In the chart below, the left column shows the absolute change in the number of commercial register entries compared to the February of the previous year. The column on the right shows the relative change.
