Census asked U.S. employers how many KPIs they tracked. At firms with 1–4 employees, 72.4% said none. At firms with 500 or more staff: 18.4%.
Census data, 2013–2022: at firms that began the year with 1–4 employees, 63% of lost jobs went when a workplace closed. At 5–9 employees: 37%.
Fed survey: 58% of firms with 1–4 employees named reaching customers as a challenge, 37% named staff. At 50–499 employees, staff led at 64%.
In Census's 2021 management survey, 55.1% of manufacturing plants rarely or never moved an underperforming manager. For other staff: 44.6%.
Across 21 Census survey rounds, 17.6% of accommodation and food service businesses reported weather losses. Professional services: 3.1%.
Florida holds 10.2% of America's no-employee businesses and added 19.9% of the 2024 increase. Add Texas and it is a third of all the growth.
The number of sole proprietorship returns reporting a profit fell 91,950 in 2020 and was back above 2019 a year later. In 2023 it fell 555,991.
Employer firms aged one to five closed at 15.4% a year in 1983-87 and 12.2% in 2015-19. Every single year of age improved, the first year included.
At workplaces under 10 staff, the monthly quit rate fell to 1.77% in 2025, the lowest since at least 2016. January to August 2026 is lower again.
Census asked employers what limits remote work. Finance named security most, at 10.3%. In every trade, the firms saying it are bigger than average.
Census state data shows the share of business filings naming a date to pay wages fell from 2005 to 2025 in all 50 and DC. The median: 36.2% to 9.2%.
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In retail, restaurants, manufacturing and four other trades, more owners call their stock too small than too big, in all 76 Census rounds since 2023.
The Census count of businesses with no employees rose by 1.56 million in 2024, to 32 million. Sixteen of 18 sectors grew, and not only the drivers.
In March and April 2020, workplaces under 50 people made 53% of the layoffs. The smallest then made up about half of theirs in extra hiring by December.
Census asked employers what limits remote work. Finance named managing staff at home most, at 8.6%. In most trades, the bigger firms are the ones saying it.
For every 100 business filings flagged as likely to hire, Washington gets 39 new employers within two years and Florida 19. The order has held since 2006.
Firms in their first year supplied 71.0% of America's net new jobs in 2023. Every employer firm aged one to 45, combined, netted a loss of 11,230.
In all 76 Census survey rounds since 2023, businesses of every size expected their overstock to shrink within six months. The shortfall hardly moves.
At workplaces under ten, 38.2% of people who leave are laid off or discharged, up from 31.6% in 2023. The layoffs held flat. The quits fell.
Census asked employers what stops remote work. 60.1% said the job cannot be done at home; 4.0% said managing people there is too costly or complicated.
America's 30.4 million businesses with no employees average $57,611 in receipts, but 60.6% take in under $25,000 and at least 75.5% fall below that average.
In real estate 1.2% of workplaces hold 32.7% of the jobs; in manufacturing 16.7% hold 80.2%. Across sectors the share at fifty-plus runs 25.5% to 89.7%.
Private establishments with 1-9 employees hold 1,186,000 open jobs and fill 683,000 a month — 1.74 standing open per hire made. In 2017 it was 1.02.
14.0% of US businesses with one to four employees call themselves excellent today. Asked to describe the same business six months out, 9.1% do.
