Business Employment Dynamics: Fourth Quarter 2006 — 2007-08-16

From September 2006 to December 2006, the number of job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments was 7.7 million, and the number of job losses from closing and contracting establishments was 7.2 million, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. (See table 3.) Over this period, firms with 1,000 or more employees accounted for the largest share of gross job gains (19.5 percent) and firms with 1 to 4 employees had the largest share of gross job losses (16.0 percent). (See tables D and 4.) The Business Employment Dynamics (BED) data series include gross job gains and gross job losses at the establishment level by major industry sector, as well as gross job gains and gross job losses at the firm level by employer size class.