From December 2003 to March 2004, the number of job gains from opening and expanding establishments was 7.7 million, and the number of job losses from closing and contracting establishments was 7.3 million, according to preliminary data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. During the first quarter of 2004, gross job gains exceeded gross job losses in both the goods-producing and service-providing sectors.
Business Employment Dynamics statistics are derived from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), also known as the ES-202 program. Gross job gains are defined as increases in employment resulting from expansions of employment at existing establishments or from the opening of establishments. Gross job losses are defined as declines in employment at existing establishments or from the closing of establishments. The difference between the number of gross jobs gained and the number of gross jobs lost is the net change in employment.
Private Sector Gross Job Gains and Job Losses
Opening and expanding private sector business establishments gained 7.7 million jobs in the first quarter of 2004, or 99,000 more than in the fourth quarter of 2003. Over the quarter, expanding establishments added 6.2 million jobs, while opening establishments added 1.5 million.Gross job losses totaled 7.3 million in the first quarter of 2004, up by 8,000 from the fourth quarter of 2003. Before this slight increase, gross job losses had been trending down since the third quarter of 2001. In the first quarter of 2004, contracting establishments lost 5.9 million jobs, while closing establishments accounted for a loss of 1.4 million jobs.
From December 2003 to March 2004, gross job gains and gross job losses represented 7.2 and 6.8 percent, respectively, of private sector employment, unchanged from the previous quarter. These gross job gain and loss statistics demonstrate that a sizable number of jobs appear and disappear in the relatively short time frame of one quarter.
Major Industry Sector Gross Job Gains and Gross Job Losses
During the first quarter of 2004, gross job gains exceeded gross job losses in the goods-producing sector for the first time since the first quarter of 2000. Expanding and opening establishments in the goods-producing sector gained 1,764,000 jobs, while contracting and closing establishments lost 1,670,000 jobs, for a net gain of 94,000 jobs. Quarterly job gains in manufacturing rose to 613,000, while gross job losses dropped to a series low of 629,000, narrowing the net job loss in that sector to 16,000. In construction, gross job gains increased to 837,000 and gross job losses decreased to 759,000, for a net gain of 78,000. This represents the third consecutive quarter of net employment gains in the construction sector.Gross job gains in the service-providing sector totaled 6.0 million jobs in the first quarter of 2004, exceeding gross job losses in that sector by 341,000. There were net job gains in the quarter in all service-providing sectors except utilities and information. The information sector gained 156,000 jobs and lost 169,000 jobs for a net loss of 13,000 jobs. The net job loss in this sector marked a resumption of the string of net job losses that began in the first quarter of 2001 and had been interrupted by a slight net job increase in the fourth quarter of 2003.
Number of Establishments Gaining and Losing Employment
In the first quarter of 2004, the number of opening establishments exceeded the number of closing establishments, leading to a net addition of 21,000 units in the number of total active private sector establishments. In addition, the number of establishments gaining jobs surpassed the number of establishments losing jobs for the third consecutive quarter. A total of 1.9 million establishments out of 6.5 million active private sector establishments gained jobs from December 2003 to March 2004. Of these, 1.5 million were expanding establishments and 349,000 were opening establishments. During the first quarter of 2004, 1.8 million establishments lost jobs. Of these, 1.5 million were contracting establishments and 328,000 were closing establishments.---
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