The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s latest 30-year study, as reported by KCUR’s Up To Date, shows that entrepreneurship in the United States has rebounded to post-pandemic levels, with millions of Americans launching new businesses in 2025. However, researchers also caution that the nature of entrepreneurship is shifting in important ways.

While startup activity is up, more individuals are beginning businesses out of financial necessity rather than opportunity, raising concerns about long-term economic stability and job quality. The study also highlights persistent barriers to entrepreneurship, particularly for women and historically underserved communities, including limited access to capital and uneven survival rates for new businesses.

Luskin professor of public policy Robert Fairlie and lead researcher of the Kauffman Indicators, notes that broader labor trends may be reshaping how Americans think about work. “Maybe it’s not just one job anymore,” Fairlie said. “People are piecing together income from multiple kinds of work… and entrepreneurship is becoming part of that mix.”