Forbes (05/20/12) Joel Shulman

Recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that entrepreneurial companies have been hiring at a red-hot pace, increasing more than 13% over last year’s levels. The rate of growth far outstrips the relatively modest 3% average increase for nonentrepreneurial firms and exceeds the prior year’s entrepreneurial growth rate of 10%. The upbeat news does not appear to be limited to only economic upswings. Striking differences between entrepreneurial and nonentrepreneurial firms exist during economic downturns as well. During the worst part of the 2007-09 recession, for example, entrepreneurial companies actually had modest increases in employment, compared to a significant drop-off for the rest of the market.