Who Actually Creates Jobs?
This chart compares average quarterly net private-sector job change across new, established, and mature firms. It uses Census QWI firm-age groups and combines the official 2–3, 4–5, and 6–10 year categories into one editorial group; it does not track the same firms forever.
What does it show?
Young firms consistently add jobs, even in downturns, but mature firms employ enough people that their expansions and contractions drive the overall cycle.
Methodology
Select national private-sector QWI aggregation level 97: all industries and all workers, tabulated by firm age. Use published Firm Job Change (FrmJbC), defined as end-of-quarter minus beginning-of-quarter employment within firms. Combine official firm-age categories 2–3, 4–5, and 6–10 years into an editorial 2–10-year group. Display the arithmetic mean of four consecutive quarterly net-job-change estimates. Do not sum job-change measures across quarters.