Quarterly Data Series on Business Employment Dynamics News Release — 2011-08-02

From September to December 2010 the number of gross job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments increased to 7.0 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over this period, the number of gross job losses from closing and contracting private sector establishments was essentially unchanged from the previous quarter at 6.4 million. In the fourth quarter of 2010, large firms with 250 or more employees experienced the largest quarter of gross job gains (1.7 million) since December 2007. 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.