Business Employment Dynamics: First Quarter, 2008

November 20, 2008

From December 2007 to March 2008, the number of job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments was 7.1 million, and the number of job losses from closing and contracting establishments was 7.4 million. More...
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Current

• Quarterly Data on Business Employment Dynamics (HTML) (PDF) — this release includes updates for the private sector as a whole and for firm size classes.
• Quarterly Data From BLS on Business Employment Dynamics by State (TXT) (PDF) — State-level Business Employment Dynamics.
• Firm Size Class Quarterly Data (HTML) (PDF) — this initial release of firm size class data includes analysis of data series that begin in 1992.
• County Employment and Wages (HTML) (PDF)
• Subscribe to the BLS News Service — receive the Quarterly Data on Business Employment Dynamics news releases by e-mail.

Archived

• Archived Business Employment Dynamics Releases (4th Quarter, 2002 forward)

Databases

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Tutorials: For help, try these tutorials
Business Employment Dynamics (BDM)

More Tools

• Series Report —Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.
• Flat files FTP Site —For those who want it all. Download a flat file of the entire database or large subset of the database.

• Private sector gross job gains and gross job losses, seasonally adjusted, March 1998-March 2008
• Components of private sector gross job gains and gross job losses, seasonally adjusted, March 1998-March 2008
• Private sector firm level gross job gains and gross job losses, seasonally adjusted, March 1998-March 2008
• Components of private sector firm level gross job gains and gross job losses, seasonally adjusted, March 1998-March 2008

• Zhi Boon, Charles M. Carson, R. Jason Faberman, and Randy E. Ilg. “Studying the labor market using BLS labor dynamics data.” February 2008 Monthly Labor Review
• Amy E. Knaup and Merissa C. Piazza. “Business Employment Dynamics data: survival and longevity, II” September 2007 Monthly Labor Review
• Sheryl Konigsberg, “The Geospatial Distribution of Employment: A New Visual Asset.” March 2007 Monthly Labor Review
• Jessica Helfand, Akbar Sadeghi and David Talan, “Employment Dynamics: Small and Large Firms Over the Business Cycle.” March 2007 Monthly Labor Review
• Cordelia Okolie, “Why Size Class Methodology Matters in Analyses of Net and Gross Job Flows.” July 2004 Monthly Labor Review
• R. Jason Faberman, “Gross Job Flows Over the Past Two Business Cycles: Not All 'Recoveries' are Created Equal.” 2004 Working Paper
• James R. Spletzer, R. Jason Faberman, Akbar Sadeghi, David M. Talan, and Richard L. Clayton, “Business Employment Dynamics: New Data on Gross Job Gains and Losses.” April 2004 Monthly Labor Review
• Joshua Pinkston and James Spletzer, “Annual Measures of Job Creation and Job Destruction Created from Quarterly Microdata.”
• R. Jason Faberman, “Job flows and labor dynamics in the U.S. Rust Belt.” September 2002 Monthly Labor Review
• R. Jason Faberman, “Job Creation and Destruction within Washington and Baltimore.” September 2001 Monthly Labor Review
• Timothy R. Pivetz, Michael A. Searson, and James R. Spletzer, “Measuring Job and Establishment Flows with BLS Longitudinal Microdata.” April 2001 Monthly Labor Review

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are Business Employment Dynamics?
2. How are Business Employment Dynamics data calculated?
3. What are the sources of Business Employment Dynamics?
4. What is the scope of Business Employment Dynamics?
5. What is not included in Business Employment Dynamics?
6. What are the differences between Business Employment Dynamics data and Current Employment Statistics (CES) and the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), or ES-202, program data?
7. What is the difference between Business Employment Dynamics and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)?
8. What is the reference period?
9. How is the net change in employment measured?
10. How are the rates for gross job gains and losses calculated?
11. How are establishments linked over time?
12. What is seasonal adjustment?
13. How are Business Employment Dynamics seasonally adjusted?
14. What are openings?
15. What are expansions?
16. What are closings?
17. What are contractions?
18. Are the Business Employment Dynamics data from a survey?
19. What are the uses of Business Employment Dynamics data?

All BDM FAQs »

Other BLS Programs

• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages — a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, metropolitan area, state and national levels by industry.
• Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the CES survey (National) — monthly national data by detailed industry on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on the payrolls of nonfarm establishments.
• Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the CES survey (State and Area) — monthly data on employment, hours, and earnings by industry and geographic area.

Other Useful Links

• Wage and Hour Division of the Employment Standards Administration: Frequently Asked Questions —Answers to questions about wages, overtime, work hours, recordkeeping, and child labor.
• Colorado Business Employment Dynamics Data (PDF) — by Michael Rose, Chief, Statistical Programs, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. (Disclaimer: Links to non-BLS Internet sites are provided for your convenience and do not constitute an endorsement.)

• NOTE: Data released for first quarter 2008 incorporate annual revisions to the BED series. Annual revisions are published each year with the release of first quarter data. These revisions cover the last four quarters of not seasonally adjusted data and 5 years of seasonally adjusted data. The differences for industry and size class data series may be obtained upon request by email.

• Firm Size Class Data: Questions and Answers

• Assessing the Timeliness of Business Births in BLS Establishment Statistics (PDF 71K)

Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics
Business Employment Dynamics
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2 Massachusetts Ave, NE
Washington, DC 20212-0001