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What do you do when there are no jobs to be had in your industry? For some Americans it seems the answer is to follow your ambition and simply make one for yourself, according to a recent study released by the Kauffman Foundation, the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity.* In 2008, despite the economic recession that took hold in the last three months of the year, the percentage of Americans starting businesses increased slightly over 2007, moving from .30% to .32%. On the state level, Georgia, Montana and New Mexico all demonstrated comparatively high rates of entrepreneurship—each with more than 500 people per 100,000 starting new businesses in 2008. The rate of entrepreneurial activity proved higher still in the country’s largest metropolitan areas. Click through to see America’s Top 10 Most Entrepreneurial Cities.

*The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity represents "the percent of individuals (ages twenty to sixty-four) who do not own a business in the first survey month that start a business in the following month with fifteen or more hours worked per week."

*Population data from the US Census Bureau