The emergence of new enterprises and startups is a crucial element in monitoring economic trends. Moreover, developing new entrepreneurial activities indicates the dynamism of industries and countries.
According to the study “Businesses born in 2022 and the economic contribution of startups”, realised by Cerved, the leading information provider in Italy, a worsening geo-political (Russian-Ukrainian war) and economic (inflation, rising interest rates and supply chain instability) context slowed down Italian entrepreneurial initiative in 2022: the establishment of new ventures dropped by more than 10,000 units compared to 2021 (-10.6%), with lower figures even compared to 2019 (-5.9%).
Cerved identified 89,192 new enterprises in 2022, the lowest figure since 2016 (excluding 2020, the year of the Covid-19 pandemic).
The most significant declines are registered in the utilities (-28.9%) and agriculture (-22.3%) sectors due to the energy shock and the sustained increase in raw material costs. Construction, still driven by the Italian Superbonus incentive (tax break scheme), recorded the smallest drop (-5.8%).
Geographically, the decline was higher in the South of Italy and the Islands (-13.2%), where all regions show worse values than the national one (-10.6%) except for Calabria (-9.5%).
The research highlights a different element: startups represent the most important driver of employment growth in the Italian economy. In 2022 new ventures contributed to net job creation with a positive balance of 343,000 employees, a value equal to about two-thirds of the Italian net employment balance (535,000 employees).
Regarding employment and turnover contributions of new enterprises, Cerved estimated that the new venture establishment decline registered in 2022 represents a loss of 27,080 new employees and € 2.5 billion in turnover.
The most affected sectors are likely to be utilities (-€ 117 million in turnover and -60.1% of employees, – 460 startups) and agriculture (-€ 74.9 million, -39.8% of employees, -407 startups).
Cerved conducted the study by integrating data on new company registrations with proprietary information and algorithms.
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For more info (in Italian) visit https://research.cerved.com/analisi/le-start-up-come-motore-della-crescita-economica-dati-2022/