New U.S. Business Establishments: Surging or Stalling?
June 2026
Working Paper Number:
CES-26-36
Abstract
Since the 1990s, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has reported much more rapid growth in U.S. private sector employer establishments than has the Census Bureau' the gap reached roughly 1.6 million by 2023. Using linked BLS-Census microdata, we document two main drivers. First, a large and growing number of employers providing services to the elderly and persons with disabilities are in scope for the BLS frame but not the Census Bureau's. Second, many firms appear with substantially more establishments in the BLS frame. These discrepancies substantially affect the measured establishment size distribution and quantitative policy analysis.
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:
market,
enterprise,
quarterly,
aggregate,
agency,
employee,
organizational,
corporate,
sector,
establishment,
establishments data,
federal,
population,
labor statistics,
employment count,
census employment
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Internal Revenue Service,
Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Social Security Administration,
County Business Patterns,
National Establishment Time Series,
Company Organization Survey,
Census Bureau Longitudinal Business Database,
Business Services,
Longitudinal Business Database,
Federal Reserve System,
Employer Identification Numbers,
Board of Governors,
North American Industry Classification System,
Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics,
Census Bureau Business Register,
Business Register,
Employer Characteristics File,
NBER Summer Institute,
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages,
Business Employment Dynamics,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
Business Dynamics Statistics,
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