Oregon business registrations on the rise

The Oregonian reports that Oregon added 1,100 registered businesses from January 2010 to January 2011. The Oregon Secretary of State's office released its 2011 business statistics recently, which showed the rise from 380,110 to 381,231 registered businesses statewide. These numbers track all enterprises registered with the state, including nonprofits and businesses outside of Oregon that operate divisions within the state.

Since 2007 Oregon has added 20,000 registered businesses; about 15,000 were added between 2007 and 2008 alone. However, the January 2012 count is about 4,000 businesses below the high of 384,000 in 2008.

It's difficult to draw broader conclusions about the economy from these numbers. The Employment Department's state employment economist noted in the article that while state business registrations have declined in some years, other measures of businesses showed gains for the same period of time.

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