DORSET saw more than 3,000 new businesses and 7,000 extra jobs created last year, it has been revealed.

Figures published by the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) show the net number of jobs generated in 2015 stood at 7,045 – an expansion of 3.1 per cent.

There were 3,015 businesses registered that year – 39 start-ups per 10,000 population.

Of businesses started in 2012, 55 per cent had survived to 2015, while 1.4 per cent of the surviving 2012 start-ups had seen their turnover grow from less than £500,000 to more than £1million by 2015.

That was slightly behind the overall figure for England of 1.8 per cent and substantially behind the nation’s best performer, Belfast, which stood at 4.4 per cent.

But the number of firms stepping up from a £1m-2m turnover to £3m or more was substantially behind the national average – 4.9 per cent compared with the national 6.3 per cent.

Lorna Carver, director of Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership – which brings together public bodies and business to boost economic development – said: “Small business start-up and growth figures provide useful insight into how an economy is faring.

“Dorset is holding its own – 3,015 new businesses starting up last year is a respectable figure and it is encouraging to see significant growth in the business services sector.

“One of the projects benefiting from Dorset LEP secured funding is the Dorset Growth Hub, a local business support service that connects businesses to the right help for their needs. However, there is still work to be done in terms of supporting new and growing businesses.”

She added: “We need to ensure Dorset offers an attractive economic environment for businesses in terms of infrastructure, connectivity and skills.”

The ERC – a consortium of leading university business schools – produced the figures in its annual UK Local Growth Dashboard.

It found that across the South West, private firms created 41,892 net new jobs, or six per cent of the UK total.

Cornwall was the top performing LEP area for job creation at four per cent of the existing stock, a net 6,045 jobs.

Dorset had a total of 26,811 private sector firms in 2015, employing 191,860 people in a county with a population of 765,700, the dashboard shows.