Spotlight on Statisitcs recent articles

In Summer 2022, BLS conducted a survey of private-sector business establishments to learn about hiring, vacancies, and telework. At that time, when the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons per job opening were at near historic lows, many employers had difficulty filling job vacancies. This Spotlight focuses on hiring by industry and area. It also examines how establishments sought to attract new workers, including teleworkers.

National Transportation Week, created in 1962 and celebrated from May 12–18 this year, recognizes those who build and operate our Nation’s transportation systems. Observance of the week sprung from National Defense Transportation Day which dates to 1957, a year after President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act leading to the creation of the interstate highway system.

Fifty years ago, on Labor Day, Gerald Ford signed into law the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). While federal, state, and local laws do not require establishments to provide retirement benefits, ERISA established standards in case they do. This Spotlight on Statistics highlights recent data on retired persons and retirement benefits for private industry workers.

In September 2003, BLS issued the first news release of the Business Employment Dynamics (BED) data series, presenting 42 quarters of gross job gains and gross job losses for the private sector of the U.S. economy. Since then, BED has published 82 quarterly releases and expanded its measures of job gains and losses. We celebrate the BED's twentieth anniversary and look forward to the future with more data spotlighting the underlying dynamics of the labor market.