From December 2019 to March 2020, gross job gains from opening and expanding private-sector establishments in Tennessee were 128,960, while gross job losses from closing and contracting private-sector establishments were 140,158, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the difference between the number of gross job gains and the number of gross job losses yielded a net employment loss of 11,198 jobs in the private sector during the first quarter of 2020. During the previous quarter, gross job gains exceeded gross job losses by 15,668. (See chart 1.)

The change in the number of jobs over time is the net result of increases and decreases in employment that occur at all businesses in the economy. Business Employment Dynamics (BED) statistics track these changes in employment at private business establishments from the third month of one quarter to the third month of the next. The difference between the number of gross job gains and the number of gross job losses is the net change in employment. (See the Technical Note.)

Gross job gains

In the first quarter of 2020, gross job gains represented 4.9 percent of private-sector employment in Tennessee; nationally, gross job gains accounted for 5.5 percent of private-sector employment. (See chart 2.) Gross job gains are the sum of increases in employment due to expansions at existing establishments and the addition of new jobs at opening establishments. In Tennessee, gross job gains at expanding establishments totaled 110,903 in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of 16,590 jobs compared to the previous quarter. (See table 1.) Opening establishments accounted for 18,057 jobs gained in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of 2,267 jobs from the previous quarter.

Gross job losses

In the first quarter of 2020, gross job losses represented 5.3 percent of private-sector employment in Tennessee; nationally, gross job losses accounted for 6.1 percent of private-sector employment. (See chart 2.) Gross job losses are the result of contractions in employment at existing establishments and the loss of jobs at closing establishments. In Tennessee, contracting establishments lost 127,062 jobs in the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 11,320 jobs from the prior quarter. Closing establishments lost 13,096 jobs, a decrease of 3,311 jobs from the previous quarter.

Industries

Gross job losses exceeded gross job gains in 7 of the 11 industry sectors in Tennessee in the first quarter of 2020. Leisure and hospitality had the largest over-the-quarter net job decrease, with a loss of 6,040 jobs. This was the result of 28,896 gross job losses and 22,856 gross job gains. The transportation and warehousing industry had a net loss of 3,706 jobs. Retail trade showed a net gain of 1,130 jobs, the largest gain of any sector in the state.

For more information

The BED data series include gross job gains and gross job losses by industry subsector, for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, as well as gross job gains and gross job losses at the firm level by employer size class. BED data for the states have been included in table 2 of this release. Additional information is available online at www.bls.gov/bdm/.

The Business Employment Dynamics for Second Quarter 2020 are scheduled to be released on Wednesday, January 27, 2021.

Technical Note

The Business Employment Dynamics (BED) data are a product of a federal-state cooperative program known as Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). The BED data are compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) from existing QCEW records. Most employers in the U.S. are required to file quarterly reports on the employment and wages of workers covered by unemployment insurance (UI) laws, and to pay quarterly UI taxes. The QCEW is based largely on quarterly UI reports which are sent by businesses to the State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). These UI reports are supplemented by two additional BLS data collections to render administrative data into economic statistics. Together these data comprise the QCEW and form the basis of the Bureau’s establishment universe sampling frame.

In the BED program, the QCEW records are linked across quarters to provide a longitudinal history for each establishment. The linkage process allows the tracking of net employment changes at the establishment level, which in turn allows the estimation of jobs gained at opening and expanding units and jobs lost at closing and contracting units.

The change in the number of jobs over time is the net result of increases and decreases in employment that occur at all businesses in the economy. BED statistics track these changes in employment at private business establishments from the third month of one quarter to the third month of the next. Gross job gains are the sum of increases in employment from expansions at existing establishments and the addition of new jobs at opening establishments. Gross job losses are the result of contractions in employment at existing establishments and the loss of jobs at closing establishments. The difference between the number of gross jobs gained and the number of gross jobs lost is the net change in employment.

Gross job gains and gross job losses are expressed as rates by dividing their levels by the average of employment in the current and previous quarters. The rates are calculated for the components of gross job gains and gross job losses and then summed to form their respective totals. These rates can be added and subtracted just as their levels can. For instance, the difference between the gross job gains rate and the gross job losses rate is the net growth rate.

The formal definitions of employment changes are as follows:

Openings. These are either units with positive third month employment for the first time in the current quarter, with no links to the prior quarter, or with positive third month employment in the current quarter following zero employment in the previous quarter.

Expansions. These are units with positive employment in the third month in both the previous and current quarters, with a net increase in employment over this period.

Closings. These are either units with positive third month employment in the previous quarter, with no employment or zero employment reported in the current quarter.

Contractions. These are units with positive employment in the third month in both the previous and current quarters, with a net decrease in employment over this period.

The full Technical Note for the Business Employment Dynamics program, which includes information on coverage, concepts, and methodology, can be found in the current quarterly news release online at www.bls.gov/news.release/cewbd.htm.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Private sector gross job gains and losses by industry, Tennessee, seasonally adjusted

Category	Gross job gains and job losses (3 months ended)					Gross job gains and job losses as a percent of employment (3 months ended)
	Mar. 2019	June 2019	Sept. 2019	Dec. 2019	Mar. 2020	Mar. 2019	June 2019	Sept. 2019	Dec. 2019	Mar. 2020
Total private (1)
Gross job gains	140,108	142,942	143,410	147,817	128,960	5.4	5.5	5.5	5.7	4.9
At expanding establishments	122,261	122,737	122,434	127,493	110,903	4.7	4.7	4.7	4.9	4.2
At opening establishments	17,847	20,205	20,976	20,324	18,057	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.7
Gross job losses	125,770	134,010	134,154	132,149	140,158	4.9	5.2	5.1	5.0	5.3
At contracting establishments	110,776	116,591	117,559	115,742	127,062	4.3	4.5	4.5	4.4	4.8
At closing establishments	14,994	17,419	16,595	16,407	13,096	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.5
Net employment change (2)	14,338	8,932	9,256	15,668	-11,198	0.5	0.3	0.4	0.7	-0.4
Construction
Gross job gains	11,317	10,823	9,098	10,860	10,204	8.8	8.3	7.0	8.3	7.6
At expanding establishments	9,697	9,509	7,651	9,273	8,673	7.5	7.3	5.9	7.1	6.5
At opening establishments	1,620	1,314	1,447	1,587	1,531	1.3	1.0	1.1	1.2	1.1
Gross job losses	9,242	9,574	10,230	8,287	9,661	7.2	7.3	7.9	6.3	7.2
At contracting establishments	8,001	8,552	8,771	7,229	8,722	6.2	6.5	6.8	5.5	6.5
At closing establishments	1,241	1,022	1,459	1,058	939	1.0	0.8	1.1	0.8	0.7
Net employment change (2)	2,075	1,249	-1,132	2,573	543	1.6	1.0	-0.9	2.0	0.4
Manufacturing
Gross job gains	10,647	10,209	10,215	10,045	7,815	3.0	2.9	2.8	2.9	2.2
At expanding establishments	10,075	9,512	9,692	9,491	7,126	2.8	2.7	2.7	2.7	2.0
At opening establishments	572	697	523	554	689	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.2
Gross job losses	8,581	9,968	10,428	9,836	10,290	2.4	2.8	2.9	2.8	2.9
At contracting establishments	8,181	9,270	9,766	9,128	9,897	2.3	2.6	2.7	2.6	2.8
At closing establishments	400	698	662	708	393	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1
Net employment change (2)	2,066	241	-213	209	-2,475	0.6	0.1	-0.1	0.1	-0.7
Wholesale trade
Gross job gains	5,133	5,347	5,226	5,680	5,280	4.2	4.4	4.3	4.7	4.3
At expanding establishments	4,380	4,533	4,166	4,849	4,559	3.6	3.7	3.4	4.0	3.7
At opening establishments	753	814	1,060	831	721	0.6	0.7	0.9	0.7	0.6
Gross job losses	4,467	4,804	5,092	4,675	4,652	3.7	3.9	4.3	3.9	3.8
At contracting establishments	3,689	3,808	4,183	3,820	3,917	3.1	3.1	3.5	3.2	3.2
At closing establishments	778	996	909	855	735	0.6	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.6
Net employment change (2)	666	543	134	1,005	628	0.5	0.5	0.0	0.8	0.5
Retail trade
Gross job gains	20,155	16,947	16,778	17,120	17,869	6.0	5.1	5.0	5.2	5.4
At expanding establishments	18,085	15,047	14,955	15,187	16,365	5.4	4.5	4.5	4.6	4.9
At opening establishments	2,070	1,900	1,823	1,933	1,504	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.5
Gross job losses	15,922	18,621	18,254	19,391	16,739	4.7	5.5	5.4	5.9	5.1
At contracting establishments	14,157	15,901	16,600	17,491	15,239	4.2	4.7	4.9	5.3	4.6
At closing establishments	1,765	2,720	1,654	1,900	1,500	0.5	0.8	0.5	0.6	0.5
Net employment change (2)	4,233	-1,674	-1,476	-2,271	1,130	1.3	-0.4	-0.4	-0.7	0.3
Transportation and warehousing
Gross job gains	7,713	8,283	8,991	11,775	6,571	4.4	4.7	5.1	6.6	3.7
At expanding establishments	6,947	7,504	7,877	11,293	5,925	4.0	4.3	4.5	6.3	3.3
At opening establishments	766	779	1,114	482	646	0.4	0.4	0.6	0.3	0.4
Gross job losses	8,183	6,577	7,109	5,678	10,277	4.8	3.8	4.1	3.2	5.7
At contracting establishments	7,858	5,775	6,489	5,028	9,574	4.6	3.3	3.7	2.8	5.3
At closing establishments	325	802	620	650	703	0.2	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.4
Net employment change (2)	-470	1,706	1,882	6,097	-3,706	-0.4	0.9	1.0	3.4	-2.0
Information
Gross job gains	3,051	4,101	3,234	2,227	2,479	6.9	9.1	7.0	4.9	5.5
At expanding establishments	2,610	3,596	2,164	1,876	1,933	5.9	8.0	4.7	4.1	4.3
At opening establishments	441	505	1,070	351	546	1.0	1.1	2.3	0.8	1.2
Gross job losses	2,496	2,715	3,067	3,293	2,707	5.7	6.0	6.7	7.3	6.0
At contracting establishments	2,155	2,216	2,597	2,807	2,282	4.9	4.9	5.7	6.2	5.1
At closing establishments	341	499	470	486	425	0.8	1.1	1.0	1.1	0.9
Net employment change (2)	555	1,386	167	-1,066	-228	1.2	3.1	0.3	-2.4	-0.5
Financial activities
Gross job gains	6,121	7,626	7,847	6,565	6,303	3.9	4.8	5.0	4.1	3.9
At expanding establishments	5,127	6,158	6,288	5,311	5,160	3.3	3.9	4.0	3.3	3.2
At opening establishments	994	1,468	1,559	1,254	1,143	0.6	0.9	1.0	0.8	0.7
Gross job losses	5,679	6,329	6,200	6,206	5,843	3.6	4.0	3.9	3.9	3.6
At contracting establishments	4,691	4,915	4,878	5,133	5,029	3.0	3.1	3.1	3.2	3.1
At closing establishments	988	1,414	1,322	1,073	814	0.6	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.5
Net employment change (2)	442	1,297	1,647	359	460	0.3	0.8	1.1	0.2	0.3
Professional and business services
Gross job gains	26,426	29,721	29,610	32,273	28,209	6.2	7.0	6.9	7.6	6.6
At expanding establishments	23,362	25,822	25,656	27,317	24,453	5.5	6.1	6.0	6.4	5.7
At opening establishments	3,064	3,899	3,954	4,956	3,756	0.7	0.9	0.9	1.2	0.9
Gross job losses	28,466	27,186	28,102	29,276	28,548	6.7	6.4	6.6	6.8	6.6
At contracting establishments	25,291	23,800	24,621	25,434	25,159	6.0	5.6	5.8	5.9	5.8
At closing establishments	3,175	3,386	3,481	3,842	3,389	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.8
Net employment change (2)	-2,040	2,535	1,508	2,997	-339	-0.5	0.6	0.3	0.8	0.0
Education and health services
Gross job gains	16,523	18,071	16,721	16,011	15,186	3.9	4.2	3.9	3.7	3.5
At expanding establishments	14,974	15,943	14,892	14,110	13,756	3.5	3.7	3.5	3.3	3.2
At opening establishments	1,549	2,128	1,829	1,901	1,430	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.3
Gross job losses	14,088	15,871	15,475	14,317	15,198	3.4	3.8	3.6	3.4	3.5
At contracting establishments	12,120	14,365	13,778	12,705	13,867	2.9	3.4	3.2	3.0	3.2
At closing establishments	1,968	1,506	1,697	1,612	1,331	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.3
Net employment change (2)	2,435	2,200	1,246	1,694	-12	0.5	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.0
Leisure and hospitality
Gross job gains	26,522	25,003	28,858	28,506	22,856	7.6	7.3	8.3	8.1	6.5
At expanding establishments	21,611	19,549	23,605	23,086	18,196	6.2	5.7	6.8	6.6	5.2
At opening establishments	4,911	5,454	5,253	5,420	4,660	1.4	1.6	1.5	1.5	1.3
Gross job losses	23,003	26,343	24,280	25,554	28,896	6.6	7.6	7.0	7.3	8.2
At contracting establishments	19,832	22,970	20,826	22,091	26,811	5.7	6.6	6.0	6.3	7.6
At closing establishments	3,171	3,373	3,454	3,463	2,085	0.9	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.6
Net employment change (2)	3,519	-1,340	4,578	2,952	-6,040	1.0	-0.3	1.3	0.8	-1.7
Other services (3)
Gross job gains	4,795	5,371	5,281	5,103	4,835	6.7	7.4	7.2	7.0	6.6
At expanding establishments	4,029	4,486	4,386	4,258	3,779	5.6	6.2	6.0	5.8	5.2
At opening establishments	766	885	895	845	1,056	1.1	1.2	1.2	1.2	1.4
Gross job losses	4,385	4,542	4,810	4,344	5,957	6.1	6.3	6.7	6.0	8.2
At contracting establishments	3,684	3,848	4,045	3,790	5,401	5.1	5.3	5.6	5.2	7.4
At closing establishments	701	694	765	554	556	1.0	1.0	1.1	0.8	0.8
Net employment change (2)	410	829	471	759	-1,122	0.6	1.1	0.5	1.0	-1.6
Footnotes: (1) Includes unclassified sector not shown separately. (2) The net employment change is the difference between total gross job gains and total gross job losses. See the Technical Note for further information. (3) Except public administration.