New York SBDC Research Network

By Andrew W. Hait, a survey statistician/economist at the Census Bureau. From the Census Bureau If you think a business is a brick-and-mortar place of work with employees and managers who have benefits and paid time off, think again. The latest data show that more than three-fourths of U.S. businesses may be run out of someone’s home and have zero employees. The rise in the number of self-employed has altered what people believe a business is. Last October, the U.S. Census Bureau released a new report that combines the data published on employer businesses with data on businesses without paid employees, or “Nonemployers.” This report challenges the common wisdom of just what is a business, how important are each of these two types of businesses, and how this definition and importance has changed. How Businesses Have Changed Traditionally, businesses are brick-and-mortar enterprises that have paid employees. They have staff who manage these employees and often provide benef...

Written by Adam Grundy Article from US Census Bureau You could look at the total number of establishments in the United States using just the U.S. Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns (CBP) data. But if you did, you would only be getting a partial view of the economic landscape. That’s because CBP only provides data on businesses that have employees on their payroll. But, in 2016, only 23.8 percent of the 32,570,855 establishments in the United States had paid employees. That means the remaining 76.2 percent of establishments were nonemployers or establishments that don’t have any paid employees. And those data come from the 2016 Nonemployer Statistics (NES). The majority of all business establishments in the United States are nonemployers, yet these nonemployer establishments average less than 4 percent of all sales and receipts nationally. So, to get a full picture of U.S. businesses in 2016, you have to look at both CBP and NES data programs. The U.S. Census Bureau...

Florida Gains More Over the Last Year Than Any Other State May 27, 2015  — There were 23.0 million businesses without paid employees, or nonemployer businesses, in the United States in 2013, up 4.4 million from 2003 and 269,705, or 1.2 percent, from 2012, according to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Most industry sectors with nonemployer businesses experienced growth in the number of nonemployer establishments and receipts since 2012, according to  Nonemployer Statistics: 2013 , which includes data on businesses in nearly 450 industries located in metropolitan areas, counties, states and nationwide. For example, the construction sector ( NAICS 23 ) saw its first increase in number of nonemployer establishments since 2007. The sector added 21,644 establishments between 2012 and 2013.

Annual report on businesses without paid employees in nearly 300 industries for the nation, states, counties and metropolitan areas. Most who own such businesses are self-employed and operate very small businesses (for example, real estate agents or beauticians) that may or may not be their primary source of income. The number of nonemployer businesses...declined by more than 260,000 between 2008 and 2009 across the United States, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau...In 2009, there were 21.1 million nonemployer firms, a decrease of about 1.2 percent from 2008. This continues a decline first noted in 2008 — following the beginning of the recession at the end of 2007 — when the total number fell by more than 350,000 from a peak of 21.7 million firms in 2007. “Nonemployer firms generate a small percentage of total U.S. business receipts, but they constitute the majority of U.S. businesses...”