By Adam Pagnucco.
Part One covered the methodology of this series. Part Two covered total employment. Part Three examined private employment. Today, let’s look at data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on establishments in the D.C. region’s ten largest jurisdictions.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, upon which this series is based, defines establishments this way:
Economic unit that produces goods or services, usually at a single physical location, and that is engaged in one or predominantly one type of economic activity.
Note: A single establishment generally produces a single good or provides a single service. An enterprise (a private firm, government agency, or nonprofit organization) can consist of a single establishment or multiple establishments. All establishments in an enterprise may be classified into one industry (e.g., a chain); into different industries (e.g., a conglomerate); or into an economic unit that produces goods or services, usually at a single physical location, and that is engaged in one or predominantly one activity (e.g., a factory, a mine, a store, or an office).
In the Washington region, 98% of all establishments are in the private sector, so effectively this stat is a proxy for place of business formation.
The chart below shows MoCo’s establishment count since 2001, the first year in this series. Establishments rose through 2007, stagnated through 2020 and have been rising since. That recent uptick is one of the more encouraging data points in this series.
The chart below shows one-year growth of establishments in 2024 for MoCo and the other nine large jurisdictions in the region.
MoCo’s establishments grew by 1.9% last year, about double the region total. This was one of our best performances on all the stats in this series.
The chart below shows 2024 establishments as a percentage of 2019 establishments. This measures the degree to which each jurisdiction has bounced back from the pandemic.
On establishments, every large jurisdiction has recovered from the pandemic, including us. That said, our performance was exceeded by six our nine competitors.
Finally, the chart below shows establishment growth from 2007 (the year before the Great Recession) to 2024.
On this measure, we were dead last. Even Alexandria, the region’s basket case, beat us.
We are improving in establishment formation but we are facing many years of lagging the region. We have quite a ways to go before we catch up.
Next: total wages paid.