Quarterly Data Series on Business Employment Dynamics News Release — 2013-12-10

From December 2012 to March 2013 gross job losses from closing and contracting private sector establishments were 6.3 million, a decrease of 115,000 jobs from the previous quarter, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Due to an administrative change in the education and health services industry sector, gross job gains are not comparable to data from previous quarters. (See box note on page 1.) 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.