Quarterly Data Series on Business Employment Dynamics News Release — 2011-05-03

From June to September 2010 the number of gross job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments decreased to 6.6 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over this period, gross job losses from closing and contracting private sector establishments increased to 6.4 million. Firms in all size classes experienced a decrease in gross job gains and an increase in gross job losses in the third quarter of 2010. The change in the number of jobs over time is the net result of increases and decreases in employment that occur at all businesses in the economy. Business Employment Dynamics (BED) statistics track these changes in employment at private business units from the third month of one quarter to the third month of the next. Gross job gains are the sum of increases in employment from expansions at existing units and the addition of new jobs at opening units.