Insurance Agents Among Missouri’s Top 10 New Business Creators

Missouri saw an increase in private sector employers last year, and insurance agents and brokers were among the top 10 new business creators in the state.

In 2015, Missouri gained more than 8,700 private-sector employers, compared with the previous year, according to a report by the state’s economic development agency.

That gain represents a 5 percent growth in the number of private sector employers over 2014, the report by the Missouri Department of Economic Development shows.

Small businesses represent bulk of the state’s 182,000 private-sector employers. In 2015, 77 percent of businesses employed fewer than 10 people; employers with up to 49 employees represented 95 percent of all businesses in the state.

Top 10 industries for new business formations in Missouri in 2015 :

1. Individual and Family Services
2. Professional, Scientific, Technical Services
3. Restaurant and Other Eating Places
4. Wholesale Electronic Market Agents and Brokers
5. Private Households
6. Residential Building Construction
7. Services to Buildings
8. Employment Services
9. Insurance Agents, Brokers and Others
10. Repair and Maintenance

Source: Missouri Department of Economic Development

The average annual wage in Missouri in 2015 was $46,001. Businesses that employed 1,000 or more people had the highest average wage — $70,533. Businesses employing five to nine people had the lowest wage on average — $36,468.

Manufacturing Lags

Missouri has seen a slight uptick in employment over the past year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. The seasonally adjusted labor force grew from 3,115,7000 to 3,120,000 from August 2015 to August 2016, representing a 0.1 percent increase.

The manufacturing sector in the state has not shared in those gains, however. Instead, as in the rest of the Midwest, Missouri has been losing manufacturing jobs.

The Creighton University Mid-America Business Conditions Index reported that over the past 12 months the manufacturing sector in Midwest states lost more than 22,000 jobs for a loss of 1.6 percent of total manufacturing jobs, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. During the same time period, however, the region gained a total of 102,000 jobs for all sectors for an increase of 0.8 percent, according to Ernie Goss, Ph.D., director of Creighton University’s Economic Forecasting Group.

In Missouri, “business dips were reported by metal producers, machinery manufacturers, and computer and electronic manufacturers. These losses more than offset gains for vehicle manufacturing,” Goss said in a summary of the Business Conditions Index for August 2016.

“Weakness among manufacturers linked to agriculture and energy continue to weigh on regional economic conditions. Due to the heavy dependence of the region on these two sectors, I will expect to see the regional economy to continue to underperform the national economy. Over the past 12 months, for example, the region has experienced nonfarm job growth of 0.7 percent compared to 1.7 percent for the U.S. This gap is likely to continue for the remainder of 2016,” Goss said.

Topics USA Agencies Manufacturing Missouri