U.S. Businesses' Employment Rises for First Time Since 2008, Census Bureau Data Shows

While U.S. businesses have shown the first rise in employment since 2008 — based on data for the year 2011 — this is the fourth consecutive year the number of businesses in the U.S. have declined, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Total employment in all U.S. business sectors was 113.4 million in 2011, an increase of 1.5 million employees from 2010. The mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sector showed the most significant increase in employment — 12 percent from 2010 to 2011.

According to the Census Bureau, there were 7.4 million U.S. businesses with paid employees for 2011, down 42,585 establishments from 2010.

These new findings, released today, April 30, are from "County Business Patterns: 2011," which the Census Bureau says provides the only detailed annual information on the number of establishments, employees and quarterly and annual payroll for almost 1,200 industries covered at the national, state and county levels.

Gwinnett County data

According to the information released by the Census Bureau, Gwinnett County had 20,920 businesses in 2011. Of those, 12,388 had one to four employees; 3,263 had five to nine; 2,395 employed 10 to 19 individuals; 1,775 had 20 to 49; 594 had 50 to 99; 385 had 100 to 249; 86 businesses employed 250 to 499 individuals; 26 employed 500 to 999; and eight businesses employed 1,000 or more. 

The top three trade industry sectors were professional, scientific and technical services with 3,178 businesses, retail trade with 2,767 establishments and wholesale trade with 2,104. 

Click here to view complete data for Gwinnett County. 

Nationwide industry highlights

Other industry sectors that showed an increase in employment included administrative and support and waste management and remediation services at 4.6 percent, educational services at 3.4 percent, management of companies and enterprises at 3.1 percent and transportation and warehousing at 2.4 percent. 

Health care and social assistance added the most establishments, with 5,866 in 2011, up 0.7 percent. Construction showed the largest decline in establishments, losing 24,946 establishments, or 3.7 percent, in 2011, down to 657,738 overall.

The retail trade sector had the highest number of establishments with 1.1 million). Next were professional, scientific and technical services at 850,903, then health care and social assistance with 818,726. 

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