Bermuda saw 322 new companies incorporated in the third quarter ? but the number of firms on the Register of Companes is still well behind where it was a year ago.

The latest data, revealed in the Quarterly Bulletin of Statistics released by Government last week, shows that the number of companies on the register in the third quarter stood at 16,328 or 113 fewer than a year ago.

The data does however show an improvement on where things stood through the first half of the year when the number of companies registered to these shores was down a whopping 343 year on year.

The reversal comes with there being 322 new companies added to the register during the July through September period.

Broken down by type of company, as of the third quarter, there were 2,918 local companies registered, 12,301 exempted companies, exempted partnerships numbered 551, non-resident entities stood at 539 and there were 19 non-resident insurance companies registered.

The third quarter registrations saw 45 local companies, 262 exempted companies, 12 exempted partnerships and three non-resident registrants added.

The largest increase year on year was seen in exempted companies with 176 more of this class being added to the register, as well as a jump of 100 local incorporations. On the flip side, exempted partnership registrations dropped off by 56 while the number of non-resident firms incorporated locally fell by 107.

Incorporation activity in the quarter was only slightly higher than the same period a year ago when 311 new companies were added to the register.

Although the Bulletin normally carries data to show, by employment sector, how well-paid residents are, the numbers for the third quarter were not made available.

In the second quarter, the figures revealed that while the number of companies registered to the Island had fallen, workers in existing companies were better paid than they had been a year prior.