U.S. Establishment Birth Rate (Annual)

## What this measures

The number of U.S. establishment births as a percentage of the average number of establishments this year and last (the Census Bureau's rate). The BDS follows every employer establishment (a single physical location with paid employees) in the Census Bureau's business register. BDS year t runs from March of t−1 to March of t, so each point is dated March 12 of its year (the payroll reference week). Annual since 1978.

## Why it matters

Births and deaths of workplaces are how the economy reallocates jobs. Birth rates have trended down since the late 1970s, a decline economists link to slower productivity growth; the rates show it without the effect of a growing economy.

## How to read it

Compare birth and death rates in the same year: the gap is the growth rate of the number of establishments.

## What it does not say

Employer locations only: no businesses without employees. It counts locations, so a chain opening a store is a birth. The newest year arrives about two years after the fact. Not comparable with Canada's monthly openings and closures.

## Source

U.S. Census Bureau, Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS), national time series (www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/bds). Public domain.