Independent Street notes that, as the economy began to tank and then tanked in earnest in 2008, entrepreneurial activity actually grew. Breaking down the data, the blog notes that it "suggests that more people are turning to entrepreneurship out of necessity in today’s bad economy, meaning they have limited job opportunities and start businesses to generate income rather than to chase a hot opportunity. In recessions, the numbers of 'necessity entrepreneurs' tend to rise given lagging job markets."

Makes sense. But we also prefer to think of these numbers as part of another trend we've talked about: the Great Rearranging, in which the downfall of numerous big corporations, victims of the economy and, in some cases, of their own mismanagement, produces numerous talented, ambitious, but jobless people who find that this is the perfect time to go into business for themselves, or to join smaller firms, or to start smaller firms, and so on. We previously examined the Great Rearranging in the financial industry. Something tells us that pretty soon we'll be able to write a post about the auto industry and the upper Midwest's economy generally (Youngstown, anyone?). But results like those which Independent Street presents shows the Great Rearranging happening on the macro level.

The results show that the Great Rearranging is for real.

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