TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) - New census data shows that non-employer businesses hit a high across Alabama between 2003 and 2004, they are currently shrinking at a drastic rate.  The source of that decline began around 2007 when businesses took a major hit from the recession.  According to information provided by the Alabama Data Center in The University of Alabama's Culverhouse Collger of Commerce, the number of businesses without paid employees declined by more than 8,300 between 2007 and 2009 in Alabama.

"Non-employer firms generate a small percentage of total U.S. business receipts, but they constitute the majority of U.S. business," says WIlliam G. Bostic Jr., associate director for economic programs at the U.S. Census Bureau.  "The decline we have seen reflects the changes in economic conditions during that time."

The new figures are from Non-employeer Statistics: 2009, an annual report on businesses without paid employees.  Most non-employers are self-employed and their business is not necessarily their primary source of income.

The date shows that real-estate has suffered the largest decline in Alabama, in response to the housing market downturn.  The industry has lost 5,512 firms between 2007 and 2009 in Alabama. 

"These businesses had receipts of about 13.5 billion dollars in Alabama, but by 2009 that was down to about 10.7 billion," explains Annette Watters, the manager of the Alabama Data Center, "so there has been billions of dollars within Alabama businesses that have gone out of business and are no longer pumping that kind of money into our economy."

The hardest hit sectors include real estate, trucking, retail trade, and housing; however, in some sectors of the economy, non-employer businesses increased in Alabama, contrary to the general trend.  Businesses in the areas of health care, food service, administrative and support and waste management and remediation services, educational services, and hair, skin, nail, beauty, and barber shops actually increased the number.