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Statistics of U.S. Businesses
and Nonemployer Statistics
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Introduction | U.S. Data|
State and MSA Data| Nonemployers
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Introduction
This website provides data on businesses with and without employees. These are referred to as “employer firms” and “nonemployer firms.” Employer firms have the lion’s share of receipts and payroll, while nonemployer firms are far more numerous.
The
U.S. Census Bureau provides Advocacy with data on employer firm size in the Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUSB). In these data, a firm is defined as the aggregation of all establishments owned by a parent company (within a geographic location and/or industry) that have some annual payroll. A firm may be located in one or more places.
SUSB’s employer data contain
the number of firms, number of establishments, employment,
and annual payroll for employment size of firm categories
by location and industry. The employer data consist of
static and dynamic data. Unless otherwise
noted, the data are static, that is, they are a "snapshot"
of firms at a point in time. Receipts by employment size
of firm are available for 1997 and 2002, and special tabulations
by receipt size of firm are available for the United States.
Industries are defined according to Standard
Industrial Classification for 1988 to 1998; and the
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
thereafter.
NAICS uses two time periods
to identify U.S., industries. SUSB data for 1998 -2002
uses NAICS 1997; and SUSB data for 2003 and beyond use
NAICS 2002. The SUSB total falls short of the total number
of firms because it excludes farms, and businesses without
employees. (Because employment is measured in March, SUSB
does have a firm size category of zero for firms that
had no employees in March but had positive employment
at some point during the year.)
Farm data are available from other sources.
A nonemployer firm is defined
as one that has no paid employees, has annual business
receipts of $1,000 or more ($1 or more in the construction
industries), and is subject to federal income taxes. The
Census Bureau provides nonemployer business data. According
to Census, "Nonemployers account for roughly 3 percent
of business activity [in terms of sales or receipts].
At the same time nonemployers account for nearly three-quarters
of all businesses. Most nonemployer businesses are very
small, and many are not the primary source of income for
their owners." See the U.S. Census Bureau,
Nonemployer Statistics for more detailed information.
Public and federal agencies
are encouraged to use the data for economic research and
regulatory analyses. The Office of Advocacy defines a
small business for research purposes as an independent
business having fewer than 500 employees however, the
SBA's Office
of Size Standards has industry definitions of small
businesses for government purposes.
U.S. data (Microsoft Excel file of data for the following PDF files)
Classified by employment size of firm
- Segmenting the economy into 25 size classes, 2006 (PDF file) 1992-2006 (TXT file)
- Totals, 1988-2006 (PDF file)
- Major industries, 1988-1998, 1998-2006 (PDF files)
- All industries by NAICS codes, 2006 (PDF file) (See the Excel file for more size classes)
- All industries, 1990-1998, 1998-2002, 2003-2006 (TXT files)
Classified by receipt size of firm
Dynamic data, by births, deaths, growth, and decline
Data by State and Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) (Microsoft Excel file of PDF files)
Classified by employment size of firm
- State totals, 1990,1995, 2000-2006 (PDF file) 1988-2006 (TXT File)
- State industry group data, 1988-1997, 1998-2002, 2003-2006 (TXT file)
- MSA totals, 1995, 2000-2006 (PDF file)
- MSA major industry group data, 2004, 2005, Totals 1993-2006 (TXT files)
- State MSA and Non-MSA totals, 1995-2006 (TXT file)
- Micropolitan Statistical Areas 2004, 2005, 2006 (TXT file)
Dynamic data, births, deaths, growth and decline
Nonemployer
Statistics (Microsoft Excel file of PDF files)
Footnotes
- Annual payroll and receipts
are in thousands of dollars.
- A firm is defined as an
aggregation of all establishments owned by a parent
company (within a geographic location and/or industry)
with some annual payroll.
- Employment size categories
are based on the national employment size of the firm
in all industries. So if a firm has 20 employees in
a given industry or location and has 10,000 total employees,
the firm will be in the 500+ employee category for that
given industry or location.
- The text files are
tab delimited text files. You can open the text file with spreadsheet
software (files can be opened in database software but
footnotes may be deleted).
- Total_Code, 1 = industry
division total.
- E# represents data for
firms with # employees. For multiple year data, the
first two characters represent the year followed by
the employment size class.
- When disclosure is necessary
sometimes ranges are footnoted ([a]=0-19, [b]=20-99,
[c]=100-249, (D)=Disclosure, [e]=250-499, [f]=500-999,
[g]=1,000-2,499, [h]=2,500-4,999, [I]=5,000-9,999, [j]=10,000-24,999,
[k]=25,000-49,999, [l]=50,000-99,999, [m]=100,000+).
-
Information about the process of producing Statistics
of U.S. Business (PDF file) is available.
Differences
Between Static and Dynamic Data
Static data indicate the
importance of firm size classes and the changing importance
of firm size classes over time. Dynamic data indicate
the growth of firm size classes over time. Unless indicated,
the tables above refer to static data. Dynamic data were
created using a longitudinal database from the U.S. Census
Bureau.
- Static firm size data
– These data report the number of firms, number of establishments,
employment, annual payroll, and estimated receipts by
employment size of firm. Firms are defined by their
employment size of firm at a point in time on a yearly
basis. Because firms can change employment size classes
from year to year, static firm size data cannot indicate
the performance of employment size classes. However,
comparisons of static firm size data can illustrate
the changing importance of small and large firms by
location (U.S., states, or MSAs), and/or industries.
- Dynamic firm size data
– These data report the number of and changes in establishments
and employment classified by beginning year employment
size of firm (firms remain in these categories for the
end-of-year figures). Changes are caused by the creation
of new firms (original establishments) or new establishments
of existing firms (secondary establishments), deaths
of original or secondary establishments, and expansion
or contraction of employment at existing establishments.
New firms are classified by their end-of-year firm size.
Dynamic data show the performance of firm employment
size categories.
- Dynamic and static figures
can differ because dynamic data exclude establishments
with zero employment. Dynamic data's end-of-year figures
in firm employment size categories will differ from
static data of the same year because dynamic data's
firms are defined by their beginning year employment
size of firm. Dynamic data track firms that change in
ownership or legal form during the year better than
static data.
Historical
research
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