U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Job gains among startup firms in 2017

November 16, 2017

The number of startup firms—firms that are 1 year old or newer—rose to 415,226 in the year ended March 2017. The number of new firms has recovered from a low of 326,091 in 2010. For the last 2 years, the number of startups has been above the 1994–2017 average of about 400,000.

 

 

Number of firms that are 1 year old or newer
Year Number of startups

1994

 403,747

1995

 421,332

1996

 414,526

1997

 427,673

1998

 413,081

1999

 408,632

2000

 417,515

2001

 406,209

2002

 393,383

2003

 404,899

2004

 405,851

2005

 430,869

2006

 457,223

2007

 437,551

2008

 402,845

2009

 342,036

2010

 326,091

2011

 347,100

2012

 366,887

2013

 366,301

2014

 371,670

2015

 396,487

2016

 413,634

2017

 415,226

From March 2016 to March 2017, startup firms gained 1.7 million jobs. That compares with about 336,000 jobs for older firms.

 

 

Contributions to employment change by age of firm
Year Firms 1 year old or newer Firms older than 1 year Total employment change

1994

 2,052,487 689,743 2,742,230

1995

 2,132,519 1,181,106 3,313,625

1996

 2,068,992 -112,086 1,956,906

1997

 2,146,878 737,195 2,884,073

1998

 2,075,092 752,575 2,827,667

1999

 2,037,189 449,383 2,486,572

2000

 2,153,862 831,149 2,985,011

2001

 1,967,544 -1,106,903 860,641

2002

 1,896,406 -4,600,001 -2,703,595

2003

 1,870,461 -2,566,178 -695,717

2004

 1,854,248 -956,919 897,329

2005

 1,949,993 53,269 2,003,262

2006

 1,992,200 609,392 2,601,592

2007

 1,878,090 -363,512 1,514,578

2008

 1,733,028 -1,622,047 110,981

2009

 1,451,779 -7,272,694 -5,820,915

2010

 1,382,440 -4,066,628 -2,684,188

2011

 1,463,497 445,415 1,908,912

2012

 1,561,894 1,107,440 2,669,334

2013

 1,550,425 570,475 2,120,900

2014

 1,571,593 702,796 2,274,389

2015

 1,648,693 1,069,273 2,717,966

2016

 1,692,106 819,483 2,511,589

2017

 1,716,646 335,696 2,052,342

Startups contribute significantly to overall changes in employment. As older firms close or reduce jobs during economic downturns, startups continue to create employment opportunities. The job gains of startups partly offset job losses by older firms during recessions.

These data are from the Business Employment Dynamics program. Startup firms are firms that opened between March of one year and March of the previous year. For more information, see Research Data on Business Employment Dynamics by Age and Size.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Job gains among startup firms in 2017 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/job-gains-among-startup-firms-in-2017.htm (visited October 31, 2024).

OF INTEREST
spotlight
Recent editions of Spotlight on Statistics


triangle