--- url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-hiring-to-stand-still/' title: 'At Firms 11 or More Years Old, Two in Three Hires Fill a Seat Someone Left. At Firms Under Two, One in Three Do.' author: name: Samantha Lankford url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/author/sam/' date: '2026-10-16T10:30:00-04:00' modified: '2026-10-16T10:30:00-04:00' type: post summary: 'Census hiring data by firm age: at the youngest firms most hires fill new jobs. At firms 11 years and older, about two in three refill a seat someone left.' categories: - Blog Post image: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/founder-hiring-to-stand-still-hero.webp' published: true --- # At Firms 11 or More Years Old, Two in Three Hires Fill a Seat Someone Left. At Firms Under Two, One in Three Do. ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png)Founder Data Report ![At Firms 11 or More Years Old, Two in Three Hires Fill a Seat Someone Left. At Firms Under Two, One in Three Do.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/founder-hiring-to-stand-still-hero.webp) Founder Data Report # At Firms 11 or More Years Old, Two in Three Hires Fill a Seat Someone Left. At Firms Under Two, One in Three Do. By Michael Dermer • Updated October 16, 2026 Get clarity — download the free Entrepreneur Survival Guide Summary. [Download the Survival Guide →](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/esg-overview/?utm_source=blog-cta) Census hiring data, 2015 to 2024: a young company hires mostly into jobs that did not exist before. An established one spends most of its hiring refilling seats. Quick Answer In the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators, a hire counts as a **replacement** when a firm hires more people in a quarter than the jobs it added. In 2024, **67.1%** of hires at private firms **11 years or older** were replacements: about two in three. At firms **under two years old**, 32.2% were, and 67.8% filled jobs the firm had added. The share filling new jobs falls at every step of firm age, in every year from 2015 to 2024, and the youngest firms’ share is above the oldest firms’ in all 19 industry sectors in every one of those years. The 30-second version - Firms 0–1 years old: 67.8% of hires went into new jobs in 2024. Firms 11+ years old: 32.9%. - At the oldest firms the replacement share stayed between 64% and 68% in every year from 2015 to 2024. - The youngest firms do not replace people more slowly. They make 9.0 replacement hires per 100 workers a quarter against 7.1 at the oldest. They add 18.9 new jobs per 100 on top; the oldest add 3.5. - The biggest drop comes early: from 67.8% at 0–1 years to 46.4% at 2–3 years. - QWI publishes no margins of error, so every claim here holds in every year and every sector, not just on average. ## Two kinds of hire Every hire fills one of two holes. Either the business has a job it did not have before, or someone left and the seat needs filling. The Quarterly Workforce Indicators, built from state unemployment insurance records, split hiring that way. They count the jobs each firm added in a quarter, and they count a hire as a replacement when the firm hired more people than that. Hires here are people who started in the quarter and were still there at its end. Cut by the age of the firm, the split moves steadily. At firms 0–1 years old, 67.8% of 2024’s hires went into new jobs. At 2–3 years it was 46.4%, at 4–5 years 43.0%, at 6–10 years 40.8% and at 11 years or more 32.9%. The same order holds in every year from 2015 to 2024. The Data Share of hires that went into jobs the firm added, by firm age, 2024 67.8%0–1 yearsold46.4%2–3 yearsold43.0%4–5 yearsold40.8%6–10 yearsold32.9%11 years or moreold- Hires not counted as replacements, as a share of all hires that lasted into the next quarter. Private firms, all industries, average of four quarters, not seasonally adjusted. U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Workforce Indicators (LEHD), national, private sector, all workers, by firm age, not seasonally adjusted, release R2026Q3: end-of-quarter hiring rate, replacement hiring rate and firm job gain rate, averages of four quarters; downloaded from lehd.ces.census.gov on October 11, 2026. > At an established company, most of the hiring is not growth. It is refilling seats. ## Young firms replace people too. They also add jobs. It would be easy to read the split as older firms losing people faster. The data say otherwise. Per 100 workers, the youngest firms made 9.0 replacement hires a quarter in 2024 and the oldest made 7.1, and the youngest were higher in every year from 2015 to 2024. The difference is on the other side of the ledger. The youngest firms added 18.9 jobs per 100 workers a quarter; the oldest added 3.5. So at a young firm the replacement hiring is buried under growth hiring, and at an old one it is most of the hiring there is. An earlier piece here found the same shape on the way out: jobs end faster at young firms, and most of that gap is jobs disappearing. This is the way in. The Data Hires per 100 workers a quarter: firms 0–1 years old vs. 11 years or more, 2024 All hires that lasted into the next quarter Firms 0–1 years old27.9 per 100 workers Firms 11+ years old10.5 per 100 workers Replacement hires: filling a seat someone left Firms 0–1 years old9.0 per 100 workers Firms 11+ years old7.1 per 100 workers Hires into jobs the firm added Firms 0–1 years old18.9 per 100 workers Firms 11+ years old3.5 per 100 workers Rates on average employment, averaged over four quarters, private firms, all industries. Replacement hires plus hires into new jobs make up all hires. All bars on one scale. U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Workforce Indicators (LEHD), national, private sector, all workers, by firm age, not seasonally adjusted, release R2026Q3: end-of-quarter hiring rate, replacement hiring rate and firm job gain rate, averages of four quarters; downloaded from lehd.ces.census.gov on October 11, 2026. ## The same direction in every industry The pattern is not one industry’s quirk. In all 19 private-sector industry groups, the youngest firms put a larger share of their hires into new jobs than the oldest, in every year from 2015 to 2024. In 2024 the youngest firms’ share was above half in every sector. The oldest firms’ share was below half in all but two: agriculture (56.5%) and arts, entertainment and recreation (53.9%). The narrowest gap is agriculture’s, at 8.1 points. The Data Gap in the share of hires going into new jobs: firms 0–1 years old minus 11+ years old, 2024 Management of companies0–1 yrs 75.9% · 11+ yrs 29.4%+46.6 ptsInformation0–1 yrs 83.0% · 11+ yrs 37.6%+45.4 ptsFinance and insurance0–1 yrs 85.8% · 11+ yrs 40.8%+45.0 ptsRetail trade0–1 yrs 66.3% · 11+ yrs 24.9%+41.4 ptsHealth care and socialassistance0–1 yrs 68.6% · 11+ yrs 28.8%+39.9 ptsUtilities0–1 yrs 79.9% · 11+ yrs 40.8%+39.1 ptsAdministrative and supportservices0–1 yrs 65.4% · 11+ yrs 26.8%+38.6 ptsReal estate and rental0–1 yrs 78.6% · 11+ yrs 41.1%+37.5 ptsManufacturing0–1 yrs 68.5% · 11+ yrs 31.8%+36.7 ptsProfessional and technicalservices0–1 yrs 82.3% · 11+ yrs 46.6%+35.7 ptsMining and oil and gas0–1 yrs 72.3% · 11+ yrs 37.5%+34.8 ptsWholesale trade0–1 yrs 75.2% · 11+ yrs 41.1%+34.1 ptsAccommodation and foodservices0–1 yrs 57.9% · 11+ yrs 24.9%+33.0 ptsOther services0–1 yrs 75.4% · 11+ yrs 42.7%+32.7 ptsConstruction0–1 yrs 77.8% · 11+ yrs 46.3%+31.5 ptsEducational services0–1 yrs 72.3% · 11+ yrs 41.5%+30.8 ptsTransportation andwarehousing0–1 yrs 63.2% · 11+ yrs 34.6%+28.6 ptsArts, entertainment andrecreation0–1 yrs 67.5% · 11+ yrs 53.9%+13.5 ptsAgriculture, forestry andfishing0–1 yrs 64.7% · 11+ yrs 56.5%+8.1 pts Percentage points, drawn on a 0 to 50 point scale; each row shows both shares underneath. Faded rows are the two sectors where even the oldest firms put more than half their hires into new jobs. Private firms, averages of four quarters, not seasonally adjusted. U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Workforce Indicators (LEHD), national, private sector, all workers, by firm age, not seasonally adjusted, release R2026Q3: end-of-quarter hiring rate, replacement hiring rate and firm job gain rate, averages of four quarters; downloaded from lehd.ces.census.gov on October 11, 2026. ## What to take from this if you run an established company Look at your last ten hires and sort them into the two holes. If the business is past its first decade, the national numbers say about seven of them refilled a seat. Every one of those is a decision you carry: who to hire, what the job really is now, who trains them while the work piles up. That load does not show up as growth, so it is easy to treat as noise. It is not noise. It is most of the hiring. Two things lower it: keeping the people you have, and writing down what each role does so the next hire starts faster. If the business is young, the problem is the opposite: most of your hires have no predecessor, so nobody can tell them how the job was done. You are designing the job and filling it at the same time. Four limits worth holding. The data come from **unemployment insurance records** and cover private employers only; the Census publishes no firm age for public-sector employers. A hire counts as a replacement only **beyond the jobs a firm added** that quarter, so at a growing firm hires are counted against new jobs first. That is how the Census defines it, and it is part of why the youngest firms show so few replacements. QWI publishes **no margins of error**, so this piece states only what holds in every year from 2015 to 2024 and in every sector. And the records show who was hired, **not why** anyone left. The Data Where the numbers land 67.1% of hires at firms 11+ years old filled a seat someone left, 2024 67.8% of hires at firms 0–1 years old went into jobs the firm added 9.0 vs. 7.1 replacement hires per 100 workers a quarter, youngest vs. oldest firms 19 of 19 industry sectors where the youngest firms’ new-job share is above the oldest firms’, every year 2015–2024 U.S. Census Bureau, Quarterly Workforce Indicators, 2015–2024. ## Frequently Asked Questions What is a replacement hire? In the Census Bureau's Quarterly Workforce Indicators, a replacement hire is a hire over and above the jobs a firm added in the quarter. If a firm added two jobs and hired five people, three of the hires count as replacements. What share of hires at established companies replace someone who left? At private firms 11 years or older, 67.1% in 2024, and between 64% and 68% in every year from 2015 to 2024. Do older firms lose people faster than young ones? No. The replacement hiring rate is higher at the youngest firms: 9.0 per 100 workers a quarter in 2024 against 7.1 at firms 11 years or older. Young firms also add far more jobs, so replacements are a smaller share of their hiring. Is this true in every industry? Yes. In all 19 private-sector industry groups, the youngest firms put a larger share of hires into new jobs than the oldest, in every year from 2015 to 2024. Where does the data come from? The Census Bureau's Quarterly Workforce Indicators, built from state unemployment insurance wage records. This piece uses the national private-sector rates by firm age, averaged over four quarters. Keep reading [At Firms Under Two Years Old, Settled Workers’ Jobs End 1.6 Times as Often. Nearly Nine-Tenths of the Gap Is Jobs That Disappear.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-the-job-not-the-person/) - [Workplaces With Fewer Than 10 Staff Had Their Lowest Quit Rate in Ten Years in 2025. So Far, 2026 Is Lower Still.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-the-people-who-stayed/) - [Small Employers Have the Lowest Quit Rate in the Economy. The Trouble Starts at Your Tenth Hire.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-turnover-by-company-size/) Part of the entrepreneurial struggle: [Leadership Burden](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/entrepreneur-struggle/leadership/) ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png) Published by **The Lonely Entrepreneur** — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. [lonelyentrepreneur.com](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/) This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.