The 10 riskiest industries to start a business

Fida Olga / Shutterstock.com

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on HireAHelper.

Risk is inevitable in any new business, but entrepreneurs in certain industries can expect a greater likelihood of survival early on.

Real estate and rental and leasing companies have the highest first-year survival rates at 88.4%. Other industries with high survival rates include agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting at 87.7% and retail at 87.6%.

On the other hand, other areas for new ventures can be even more risky than the overall average.

To identify the riskiest industries to start a business, HireAHelper researchers calculated a composite risk index based on recent one-, two-, three-, four-, and five-year survival rates for businesses in each industry. The data used in this report comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Here are the riskiest industries for starting a new business.

10. Construction

yuttana Contributor Studio / Shutterstock.comComposite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 47.1 1-year survival rate: 82.9% 2-year survival rate: 71.8% 3-year survival rate: 65.4% 4 -year survival rate: 63.6% 5-year survival rate: 58.6%

9. Finance and Insurance

goodluz / Shutterstock.comComposite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 49.4 1-year survival rate: 84.7% 2-year survival rate: 73.2% 3-year survival rate: 64.7% 4-year -Survival rate: 61.0% 5-year survival rate Survival rate: 56.7%

8. Arts, Entertainment and Recreation

Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.comComposite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 60.0 1-year survival rate: 81.1% 2-year survival rate: 70.6% 3-year survival rate: 63.6% 4 -year survival rate: 62.0% 5-year survival rate: 57.4%

7. Transportation and storage

Alba_alioth / Shutterstock.comComposite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 65.9 1-year survival rate: 83.8% 2-year survival rate: 68.7% 3-year survival rate: 61.3% 4-year -Survival rate: 61.1% 5 year survival rate: 53.0%

6. Management of companies and companies

Pressmaster/Shutterstock.comComposite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 70.6 1-year survival rate: 83.8% 2-year survival rate: 69.9% 3-year survival rate: 60.8% 4-year -Survival rate: 59.1% 5-year survival rate: 51.4%

5. Wholesale

Fusionstudio / Shutterstock.com Composite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 74.1 1-year survival rate: 82.5% 2-year survival rate: 69.3% 3-year survival rate: 61.3% 4-year -Survival rate: 57.3% 5-year survival rate: 52.5%

4. Professional, scientific and technical services

Surachai Phurngzaka / Shutterstock.comComposite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 76.5 1-year survival rate: 82.9% 2-year survival rate: 69.1% 3-year survival rate: 60.8% 4- One-year survival rate: 58.0% 5-year survival rate: 52.3%

3. Administration and Waste Services

photo-denver / Shutterstock.comComposite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 89.4 1-year survival rate: 79.1% 2-year survival rate: 66.6% 3-year survival rate: 59.7% 4 -year survival rate: 56.7% 5-year survival rate: 50.9%

2. Information

Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock.com Composite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 92.9 1-year survival rate: 79.2% 2-year survival rate: 65.2% 3-year survival rate: 56.1% 4-year -Survival rate: 54.2% 5 years survival rate: 48.3%

1. Mining, quarrying and oil and gas exploration

dgdimension / Shutterstock.comComposite Risk Score (higher = higher risk): 100.0 1-year survival rate: 74.4% 2-year survival rate: 62.5% 3-year survival rate: 52.5% 4-year -Survival rate: 53.0% 5 years survival rate: 41.5%

methodology

Creating Jobs 51 / Shutterstock.com

The data used in this report is from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Business Employment Dynamics Survey.

To identify the riskiest industries to start a business, HireAHelper researchers calculated a composite risk index based on the latest one-, two-, three-, four-, and five-year facility survival rates in each industry as of March 2021