The increase in registration of companies registered under the self-employed regime partly compensates for the reduction in the creation of traditional companies.
A slight decline. In 2023, the level of business creation remained strong with 1,051,500 new companies created according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee). Or 10,500 fewer than in 2022 (-1%). After strong growth between 2016 and 2021, business creations are decreasing for the first time in seven years.
In detail, this decline is felt in most sectors, particularly in specialized activities. Construction (-8%) and real estate activities (-12%) recorded a significant decline, suffering more than any other sector from the rise in interest rates. Scientific and technical activities also fell by 8%. Conversely, companies specializing in administrative and support services grew by 17% over the year.
In a context of economic slowdown coupled with inflation of 4.9% over the whole year, the level of business creation remained high, almost twice as high as in 2015. And this then, that the default figure started to rise again in 2023.
63% of new companies in micro-entrepreneur
Nevertheless, this relative stability testifies to an underlying phenomenon at work for several years: the rise of the status of micro-entrepreneur. INSEE recorded a 3% increase in individual businesses registered under this regime, which reached an unprecedented level at 667,400 new registrations. This progression partly compensates for the reduction in the creation of traditional companies (-8%), which stands at nearly 300,000, as well as that of traditional individual companies which decline for the second consecutive year (-6%), approaching the 115,000.
The Institute of Statistics underlines that companies created under the micro-entrepreneur regime represent nearly 63% of new companies in 2023, compared to 48% in 2017, the last year before the doubling of the turnover ceilings giving entitlement to the regime. . And remember that all these registrations do not necessarily result in the start of an economic activity. Indeed, almost a third of micro-entrepreneurs registered in the first half of 2018 had not achieved any turnover in the months following their registration.
In view of these data, it is difficult to equate this high level of business creation with job creation when the unemployment rate curve has reversed in 2023 . According to INSEE, only 2% of new companies employ at least one employee when they are created. Excluding micro-entrepreneurs, this share has decreased significantly in ten years, going from 12% to 5%.
