Business closings in Connecticut finally easing

Finally, some good news: Business closings in Connecticut appear to be easing, according to figures released today by Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz.

While last year’s closings numbers fell only slightly compared with 2008’s record-breaking year for business failures, the trend over the past three months has been encouraging. While business stops in the first three quarters of the year exceeded failures for the same period in 2008, the fourth quarter showed significant improvement, with closings falling 24 percent.

"The end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 saw record-breaking numbers of Connecticut businesses shutting down and the steepest declines we ever recorded in the number of new business start-ups," Bysiewicz said in a statement. "Overall, the economic decline is clearly abating but we have yet to see the healthy signs of a full recovery."

Business failures numbered 13,414 last year compared with 13,456 the year before. Start-ups, which numbered 25,891 last year, were down 6 percent from the year before.

"We are still not seeing the number of new business start-ups we want to see but that too is improving," Bysiewicz said. "It is nowhere near the steep drop-off for new business ventures we were looking at one year ago."

The first five months of 2009 saw double-digit declines in business start-ups compared to the year before. Since then, though, the numbers have been virtually flat.

Still, the 5,394 businesses filing papers to incorporate in the fourth quarter fell 6.9 percent below the level of the previous year, according to Bysiewicz’s numbers.

Don Klepper-Smith, chairman of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, said he expects business to pick up in the coming year.

"Economic fundamentals heading into 2010 are clearly more favorable as job losses are expected to ease, income growth is likely to resume and business activity is apt to pick up in response to rising levels of consumer confidence," he said in a commentary accompanying Bysiewicz’s report.