December 09, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Job growth and firm size

From September 1992 through March 2005, firms with fewer than 500 employees accounted, on average, for 65 percent of quarterly net employment growth in the private sector, representing 13.5 million out of 20.6 million net jobs.

[Chart data—TXT]

As of March 2005, firms with fewer than 500 employees accounted for 55.8 percent of private sector employment. Firms of this size accounted for 99.6 percent of all firms in the private sector in the US.

A firm is defined as an aggregation of establishments under common ownership by a corporate parent. An establishment is defined as an economic unit that produces goods or services, usually at a single physical location, and engages in one, or predominantly one, activity.

These data are from Business Employment Dynamics. Data presented here are for workers in private industry covered by State unemployment insurance programs. Find out more in "New Quarterly Data From BLS on Business Employment Dynamics By Size of Firm," news release USDL 05–2277.