Quarterly Data Series on Business Employment Dynamics News Release — 2010-05-20

From June to September 2009 the number of gross job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments was 6.3 million, a decrease of 124,000 jobs compared to the previous quarter, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of gross job losses from private sector closing and contracting establishments fell to 7.3 million in the third quarter of 2009, a decline of 739,000 from the previous quarter. This is the largest over-the-quarter decrease in gross job losses since the series began in 1992. Over this period, gross job losses exceeded gross job gains in all industry sectors except utilities and education and health services. (See table 3.) 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.