California among top states in start-up businesses

California is among the nation's leaders in start-up businesses, trailing only Georgia and neighboring Nevada, according to a new report released this week.

The annual Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity showed 470 per 100,000 California adults started businesses each month in 2010 as more people were spurred into business ownership by the economy and the state's high unemployment. Georgia and Nevada tied for first with 510 adults per 100,000 creating businesses monthly last year. Louisiana and Colorado completed the top five, according to the report.

Nationwide, the startup rate in 2010 was at its highest level in 15 years, with Americans creating 565,000 businesses a month. But Kauffman Foundation chief executive officer Carl Schramm warned that the rise in entrepreneurial activity is not translating into job creation, saying that many who are starting their own businesses are flying solo, instead of opening businesses that hire others.

"Far too many founders are choosing jobless entrepreneurship, preferring to remain self-employed or to avoid assuming the economic responsibility of hiring employees," Schramm said, in announcing the index's findings.