California’s business climate has been a perpetual target of ridicule.
Out-of-state politicians and critics of the state’s regulations have delighted in depicting California as an inhospitable place to do business.
The Golden State perennially ranks at the bottom of national surveys gauging business friendliness. Chief Executive magazine recently called it a “deeply troubled” state, where companies are so over-regulated that “most cannot afford to do business.”
But a new study drawing on more than three decades’ worth of census business-formation data tells quite a different story.
California has spawned new businesses at one of the fastest rates in the nation over the last decade, and faster than the U.S. economy overall, the report found. The state is also a leader in job creation tied to those new businesses: In 2013, California added jobs from newly established businesses faster than all but four other states.
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