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     Businesses in the retail trade, health care and social assistance, and accommodations and food services industries added more than 1.1 million jobs between 2003 and 2004, according to a report on business activity released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

     According to the report, 2004 County Business Patterns, retail trade led all industry sectors in employment gains, adding 483,606 jobs; followed by health care and social assistance (342,629 jobs); and accommodations and food services (310,160 jobs).

     Among counties with the largest employment changes in these industries were San Diego, Calif., for retail trade (nearly 8 percent gain between 2003 and 2004); Miami-Dade, Fla., for health care and social assistance (nearly 13 percent); and Alameda, Calif., for accommodations and food services (more than 13 percent). Los Angeles County had the largest numeric gains in retail trade and health care and social assistance between 2003 and 2004.

Numerical and Percentage Gains in Employment, 2003 to 2004: U.S. and Top-Five Counties in Selected Industry Sectors

     Other highlights:

• Professional, scientific and technical services businesses showed considerable growth, with the total number of establishments up 3 percent, employment up 3.1 percent and annual payroll up 7.1 percent between 2003 and 2004. San Francisco County, Calif., led the nation in employment growth for this sector and added 29,000 new jobs in 2004. Fairfax County, Va., was another leading county, with establishment growth of 5.9 percent, employment growth of 13.7 percent and annual payroll growth of 16.8 percent.
• The southeastern region (Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia) led the nation in employment growth and added 630,000 jobs. The salaries for all employees in the region grew by 6.7 percent from $705.6 billion in 2003 to $752.6 billion in 2004.
• Nationwide, private sector employment grew by 1.5 percent from 113.4 million in 2003 to 115.1 million in 2004. Annual pay for all employees grew by 5.3 percent to $4.3 trillion.
• Among the 50 counties with the most establishments in 2004, New York continued to have the highest average annual payroll per employee (in 2004 dollars) at $80,013, a 9.6 percent annual gain over $73,032 (in 2003 dollars). (See Excel table.)

     The report defines employment as all full- or part-time employees who were on the payroll during the pay period that includes March 12. The 2004 County Business Patterns data are tabulated by industry according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). County Business Patterns covers private sector businesses in most of the 1,100 NAICS industries.

     The data in today’s report cover such important issues as small business growth, average employee wages and geographic concentration of industries across the nation. Data for the vast majority of the nation’s businesses -- those without paid employees -- will be released later this year.

     County Business Patterns data are provided at various geographic levels, including state, county and metropolitan statistical areas. The Census Bureau also will release the data down to the 5-digit ZIP code level later this year.

     County Business Patterns data have been published annually since 1964 and at irregular intervals back to 1946. The data will be available on CD-ROM at a later date.