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Census BDS / 2023 release

Business Dynamism Observatory

Track establishment entry, exit, expansion, and contraction in annual Census Business Dynamics Statistics. Sector comparisons use the same published years and retain their denominators.

Coverage
1978-2023
46 annual releases
Sector detail
19
two-digit NAICS sectors
Measures
6
5,520 indicator rows
Latest employment
137.5M
5,593,727 firms
Entry rate
10.608%
2023
Exit rate
9.396%
2023
Job creation
13.592%
2023
Job destruction
11.059%
2023
Net job creation
2.534%
2023
Excess reallocation
22.118%
2023

Analytical workspace

Job destruction rate23 Construction compared with the United States

Long-run movement

Job destruction, 1978-2023

Gross job losses from closing and contracting establishments relative to the BDS employment denominator.
United StatesConstruction
2023Construction13.469%United States11.059%Gap +2.410 pp
1978: United States 13.406%; Construction 20.625%1979: United States 12.977%; Construction 21.362%1980: United States 15.195%; Construction 27.051%1981: United States 15.096%; Construction 27.433%1982: United States 16.657%; Construction 31.002%1983: United States 17.593%; Construction 28.791%1984: United States 13.073%; Construction 21.629%1985: United States 14.999%; Construction 24.362%1986: United States 15.399%; Construction 24.777%1987: United States 17.213%; Construction 25.300%1988: United States 16.050%; Construction 24.740%1989: United States 14.869%; Construction 23.814%1990: United States 14.394%; Construction 23.780%1991: United States 17.522%; Construction 31.720%1992: United States 16.007%; Construction 26.988%1993: United States 14.407%; Construction 23.749%1994: United States 13.821%; Construction 21.820%1995: United States 12.899%; Construction 19.003%1996: United States 14.049%; Construction 19.968%1997: United States 15.178%; Construction 18.869%1998: United States 13.787%; Construction 18.897%1999: United States 14.422%; Construction 16.956%2000: United States 13.608%; Construction 16.950%2001: United States 15.424%; Construction 19.213%2002: United States 18.784%; Construction 22.608%2003: United States 15.178%; Construction 20.805%2004: United States 13.871%; Construction 18.309%2005: United States 13.741%; Construction 19.584%2006: United States 12.808%; Construction 16.239%2007: United States 14.913%; Construction 20.682%2008: United States 14.307%; Construction 22.116%2009: United States 16.772%; Construction 29.775%2010: United States 14.052%; Construction 26.473%2011: United States 11.749%; Construction 21.992%2012: United States 11.634%; Construction 17.611%2013: United States 11.443%; Construction 16.654%2014: United States 10.968%; Construction 15.307%2015: United States 10.837%; Construction 14.383%2016: United States 10.876%; Construction 13.909%2017: United States 11.951%; Construction 14.205%2018: United States 11.142%; Construction 13.624%2019: United States 10.349%; Construction 13.537%2020: United States 11.326%; Construction 13.807%2021: United States 15.837%; Construction 15.803%2022: United States 11.153%; Construction 13.436%2023: United States 11.059%; Construction 13.469%
Entry minus exit+1.934 pp

In 2023, establishment entry was higher than exit for Construction.

Creation minus destruction+3.241 pp

Gross job creation was higher than destruction, matching the published net rate within rounding.

Change since 1978-7.156 pp

Job destruction was 7.156 points lower in 2023 than at the start of the series.

Source custody and method

A flow system, not a concentration score.

Every rate remains attached to its BDS year, national or sector universe, Census denominator, and source release.

01 / Source

2023 Business Dynamics Statistics

U.S. Census Bureau / accessed 2026-07-19. The observatory pins the economy-wide and sector CSV files to verified SHA-256 hashes.

02 / Measurement

March-to-March establishment flows

Job-flow rates use the Census Davis-Haltiwanger-Schuh average-employment denominator. Entry and exit use longitudinally consistent establishment counts, and excess reallocation removes the absolute net job change from gross flows.

03 / Handoffs

5,520 reusable observations

Use this slice as JSON or CSV, inspect the canonical indicator dossier, or continue into the guarded multidimensional data cube.

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