The newest sign that the economic crisis is growing in Connecticut is also a record for the state - more than 13,000 businesses closed in 2008, the highest annual number since they were first recorded in 2000, Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz said.
The state also had the steepest decline in new business starts ever recorded, Bysiewicz said.
The numbers:
Don Klepper-Smith, chairman of the Governor's Council of Economic Advisers, said the numbers are bad news for Connecticut and that it won't get better anytime soon.
Klepper-Smith said all indications point to the recession continuing through 2009.