Founder Data ReportRoughly a Million Establishments Open Every Quarter. The Average One Adds 1.6 Jobs.
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Divide the jobs that arrive with new openings by the number of openings and you get the size of a beginning. It was 1.62 jobs across 2024-2025. It was 1.59 twenty years ago.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts how many establishments open each quarter and how many jobs arrive with them. Divide one by the other and you get the size of a beginning. Across 2024 and 2025 it was 1.62 jobs per opening. In 2016 through 2019 it was 1.64. In 2006 through 2007 it was 1.59. Through a financial crisis, a startup boom and a pandemic, the average American establishment opens with one or two people, and that has not changed.
- In 2025Q1, 1,012,000 establishments opened and 809,000 closed.
- Each opening brought 1.62 jobs on average across 2024-2025.
- In 19 of the 20 years since 2006 the figure sat between 1.57 and 1.76 jobs. 2020 is the only year outside that band, at 1.98.
- Establishments that closed employed more than establishments that opened in 18 of 20 years — 1.68 against 1.62 in 2024-2025.
- The two exceptions are 2008 and 2009, and in those two years closings outnumbered openings outright — the only period since 2006 where that happened.
A beginning is one or two people
There is a version of entrepreneurship in circulation where the first act is a team. Hire the engineers, hire the operator, get to twelve people and then find out whether it works. The national data says almost nobody does this.
Across 2024 and 2025, the jobs arriving with newly opened establishments divided by the number of those openings comes to 1.62. Not 1.62 as the median of a wide spread — as the average of roughly four million openings a year. And the number is almost inert: in 19 of the 20 years from 2006 through 2025 it sat between 1.57 and 1.76 jobs, a band 0.19 of a job wide. The single exception is 2020, at 1.98 — the year openings collapsed and the ones that still happened were unusually substantial.
The orange bar is 2020, the only year outside the 1.57-1.76 band. Every other bar is nearly the same length because the series barely moves — read the printed values, not the bar lengths. The axis runs from zero to 2.0 jobs, so a 0.19-job spread across nineteen years is invisible by design.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, total private, seasonally adjusted, retrieved from the BLS public API on September 11, 2026. Jobs at opening establishments divided by the count of openings, annual means.
The ones leaving are bigger than the ones arriving
Run the same division on the other side — jobs lost at closing establishments divided by the number of closings — and the answer is consistently larger. In 2024 and 2025 a closing took 1.68 jobs with it against the 1.62 an opening brought, a difference of 0.06 of a job. It is not a large gap, but it is a persistent one: closings employed more than openings in 18 of the 20 years on record.
The reading to resist is that this is businesses growing before they fail. The data cannot say that — these are two different populations counted in the same quarter, not the same establishments followed over time. What it does say is narrower and still useful: the establishments leaving the economy are, on average, slightly larger employers than the ones arriving. Replacement is not one-for-one in jobs even when it is close to one-for-one in premises.
All bars share one axis running to 2.3 jobs, so rows can be read against each other. Slate is openings, orange is closings. 2008-09 is on the chart because it is the one period where the slate bar is the longer of the two.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, total private, seasonally adjusted, retrieved from the BLS public API on September 11, 2026. Period figures pooled across all quarters in each span.
The one time it reversed
For seven straight quarters — every quarter from 2008Q2 through 2009Q4 — more establishments closed than opened. Pooled, 2008 through 2009 ran 106.3 closings for every 100 openings. No other period since 2006 has crossed 100, and only 8 of 77 individual quarters have: those seven, plus the second quarter of 2020. In 2024-2025 the figure is 89.9.
The orange bar is 2008-09, the only period above 100 — the only span since 2006 in which the economy closed more establishments than it opened. Everything else sits between 84.0 and 89.9. The axis runs from zero to 120.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, total private, seasonally adjusted, retrieved from the BLS public API on September 11, 2026. Closings are published one quarter behind openings, so the series ends 2025Q1.
The average opening puts fewer than two people on a payroll. That is the American origin story, about four million times a year.
What to do with this
If you are running a business with two or three people and it feels like you are behind some standard, the standard is invented. 1.62 jobs is what an opening looks like, and it has looked like that every year for twenty years. The comparison set you are measuring yourself against — the funded launch with a staff on day one — is rare enough that it does not move the national average by a hundredth of a job.
One caveat on the numbers, because it changes what they mean. BLS counts an establishment as “opening” when it reports employment after a quarter with none, which includes seasonal reopenings as well as genuinely new businesses. So 1.62 is the average size of an opening event, not of a first-ever founding. It is the right number for the question “how big is a beginning in this economy” and the wrong one for “how many people does a brand-new company hire.” The series is also built from state unemployment-insurance records, which cover employees on a payroll — an owner drawing no wage is not counted, so 1.62 is 1.62 employees, not the founder plus a fraction.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, total private, seasonally adjusted, retrieved from the BLS public API on September 11, 2026. 2024-25 pooled; counts for 2025Q1.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many jobs does a new business create?
Across 2024 and 2025, each establishment that opened in the United States brought 1.62 jobs on average, according to BLS Business Employment Dynamics. The figure has stayed between 1.57 and 1.76 in 19 of the 20 years since 2006.
How many businesses open and close each quarter?
In 2025Q1, the most recent quarter with both counts published, 1,012,000 private-sector establishments opened and 809,000 closed.
Do closing businesses employ more people than opening ones?
On average, yes, by a small margin. In 2024-2025 a closing establishment accounted for 1.68 lost jobs against 1.62 gained per opening. Closings employed more than openings in 18 of the 20 years since 2006; the exceptions are 2008 and 2009.
Has the number of closings ever exceeded openings?
Yes, in 8 of 77 quarters since 2006: every quarter from the second quarter of 2008 through the fourth quarter of 2009, and the second quarter of 2020. Pooled, 2008-2009 ran 106.3 closings per 100 openings.
Does an “opening” mean a brand-new business?
Not exactly. BLS counts an establishment as opening when it reports employment following a quarter with none, which includes seasonal and other reopenings alongside genuinely new businesses. The figure is therefore the average size of an opening event rather than of a first-ever founding.
Published by The Lonely Entrepreneur — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. lonelyentrepreneur.com
This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.