Business Dynamics Statistics

Annual measures of business dynamics such as job creation and destruction, establishment births and deaths, and firm startups and shutdowns.

The U.S. Census Bureau publishes annual data about Business Dynamics Statistics: “BDS provides annual measures of business dynamics (such as job creation and destruction, establishment births and deaths, and firm startups and shutdowns) for the economy overall and aggregated by establishment and firm characteristics.”

Here is a chart of net job creation rate for each state. The data is shown as the difference of the state from the nationwide rate. Values above zero mean the state’s value is higher than the nation’s.

In more detail, the Bureau says:

The BDS data measure the net change in employment at the establishment level. These changes come about in one of four ways. A net increase in employment can come from either opening establishments or expanding establishments. A net decrease in employment can come from either closing establishments or contracting establishments.

Gross job gains include the sum of all jobs added at either opening or expanding establishments. Gross job losses include the sum of all jobs lost in either closing or contracting establishments. The net change in employment is the difference between gross job gains and gross job losses.

The formal definitions of employment changes are as follows:

Job Creation (JC) – Job creation is the sum of all employment gains from expanding establishments from year t–1 to year t including establishment startups. Note that the contribution of firm births can be measured by using the job creation from establishments with firm age equal to zero.

Job Destruction (JD) – Job destruction is the sum of all employment losses from contracting establishments from year t–1 to year t including establishments shutting down.