Besides the usual employment and jobs numbers delivered each month, there are other interesting statistics gathered about business firms and workers.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “The Business Employment Dynamics statistics track changes in employment at the establishment level, revealing the dynamics underlying net changes in employment. These data include the number and rates of gross jobs gained at opening and expanding establishments, as well as the number and rates of gross jobs lost by closing and contracting establishments.”
The data is not a complete picture of employment, as certain jobs are not included: self-employed workers, government employees, religious organizations, most agricultural workers on small farms, all members of the Armed Forces, elected officials in most States, most employees of railroads, some domestic workers, most student workers at schools, and employees of certain nonprofit organizations.
The job changes are separated by changes in employment at existing firms (expansions and contractions), or by firms starting in business or ending (openings and closings).
This page further explains the data, and a helpful presentation that explains and illustrates this data is at Analyzing BLS Business Employment Dynamics Data.
The interactive visualization I’ve prepared is for all private sector industries and all firm sizes. This visualization uses rates instead of levels. Visualization created using Tableau Public. Use the visualization below, or click here to open in a new window, which will probably work best.
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