California business applications, August 2026

Californians filed 50,293 new business applications in August 2026, up 25.9% from a year earlier. These are EIN filings, so the series measures intent to start a business rather than businesses that actually open — but it lands about 11 days after the month ends, which makes it one of the fastest real-activity readings available for the state. Note the step-change after 2020: application rates never returned to their pre-pandemic level.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics, business applications for California, monthly, not seasonally adjusted, via FRED BABATOTALNSACA. Auto-generated each build.

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