New business filings increased 9 percent in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the previous year, according to a new report released Thursday by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett. This marked 30 consecutive quarters of positive year-over-year new business growth in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report showed that 12,512 new entity filings were recorded in the first quarter of 2019 by the Secretary of State’s Division of Business Services.

“We continue to see an increase in the number of new business entities in Tennessee, pointing to healthy economic growth across the state. This growth, along with record low unemployment statewide and increased job creation, is directly tied to our state’s fiscally conservative policies and the business-friendly environment we’ve created in Tennessee,” Secretary Hargett said. 

According to the report, employment in the manufacturing sector grew in March by 2.2 percent or 7,500 jobs compared to March 2018. The state unemployment rate held steady at an all-time low of 3.2 percent for the last two months, and is 0.4 percentage points lower than the previous state record in March 2018.

“New entity filings suggest that Tennessee’s 10 year economic expansion will continue over the next year. As a result, the historically low unemployment rate is likely to fall even farther,” Dr. William Fox said. Dr. Fox is the director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville  

Among the four largest Tennessee counties there were 7,217 new business entity filings recorded during the first quarter of 2019, representing a 9.1 percent increase over the same quarter last year.  These four counties accounted for 57.7 percent of all new entity filings in the state with Davidson County leading the way with 2,925 new business filings, followed by Shelby with 2,434.

Statewide, new filings of domestic limited liability corporations (LLCs) saw the strongest growth in first quarter of 2019, expanding 12.2 percent over first quarter 2018.

The state also recorded 157,033 annual report filings by existing businesses in Tennessee in first quarter 2019 – a 4.4 percent increase over the same time period last year.