Release change report · Census County Business Patterns 2022–2023

Which U.S. industries added and lost the most jobs?

This report compares published Census County Business Patterns employment totals for 75 broad, 3-digit NAICS industries between 2022 and 2023. It shows reported industry change, not a forecast for a company, worker, state, or the current year.

Compiled by PlainBizBench Editorial, Industry Data Editorial Team

645,099
Largest reported gain: Food Services and Drinking Places: 139,278
Largest reported decline: Administrative and Support Services: 75
Comparable industries

The release-to-release result

Food Services and Drinking Places recorded the largest employment increase in this comparison, up 645,099 from 11,999,728 in 2022 to 12,644,827 in 2023. Administrative and Support Services recorded the largest decline, down 139,278. These are changes in published national industry totals, not a measure of job quality, business performance, or a prediction.

+645,099
Food Services and Drinking Places: −139,278
Administrative and Support Services: 2022–2023
Comparable CBP releases

Only rows with a published employment value in both releases and at least 10,000 prior-year employees are included. Suppressed values remain excluded rather than becoming zeroes.

What changed between the two Census releases

County Business Patterns publishes annual establishment and employment totals by industry. This report joins the portal’s retained national releases for 2022 and 2023, then compares the same 3-digit NAICS industry in both files. It is a release-over-release description of the reported totals, not a causal explanation for why an industry changed.

The comparison begins at 10,000 reported employees in 2022. That floor avoids promoting small-base movements into a broad national finding. A row with a Census suppression in either year is absent from the ranking; missing data is not treated as a zero or an estimate.

Largest reported employment gains

Absolute change in reported national employment, 2022–2023. The bar length shows the change, while the table supplies the underlying totals.

Industries with the largest reported employment gains
Industry	2022	2023	Change
Food Services and Drinking Places NAICS 722	11,999,728	12,644,827	+645,099
Social Assistance NAICS 624	3,421,442	3,742,670	+321,228
Ambulatory Health Care Services NAICS 621	8,401,579	8,697,480	+295,901
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services NAICS 541	10,152,104	10,401,442	+249,338
Specialty Trade Contractors NAICS 238	4,773,221	4,986,759	+213,538
Management of Companies and Enterprises NAICS 551	3,661,977	3,855,720	+193,743
Hospitals NAICS 622	6,152,489	6,344,178	+191,689
Educational Services NAICS 611	3,743,840	3,926,820	+182,980
Accommodation NAICS 721	1,793,750	1,963,343	+169,593
Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries NAICS 713	1,670,157	1,794,693	+124,536

Largest reported employment declines

Absolute decline from the same two national releases. A decline in this table is not a judgment about an industry or its workers.

Industries with the largest reported employment declines
Industry	2022	2023	Change
Administrative and Support Services NAICS 561	13,100,276	12,960,998	−139,278
Truck Transportation NAICS 484	1,731,678	1,693,228	−38,450
Furniture and Home Furnishings Stores NAICS 442	444,443	409,563	−34,880
Telecommunications NAICS 517	940,157	912,645	−27,512
Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing NAICS 337	371,164	355,594	−15,570
Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers NAICS 441	2,030,427	2,015,007	−15,420
Wood Product Manufacturing NAICS 321	446,052	432,255	−13,797
Couriers and Messengers NAICS 492	1,197,982	1,185,718	−12,264
Broadcasting (except Internet) NAICS 515	271,709	262,310	−9,399
Textile Product Mills NAICS 314	105,699	96,683	−9,016

How to read a reported industry change

These totals are national industry aggregates. They do not show where jobs changed, whether employment was full-time, what workers were paid, or whether a particular business followed the national pattern. Census coverage and industry classification rules also matter. Use the result to identify a benchmark worth investigating, then open the underlying industry page and consult the Census release documentation for a decision that depends on it.

Method and source

PlainBizBench preserves the Census County Business Patterns national files for 2022 and 2023 in its reproducible ETL. The report joins like-for-like NAICS level 3 rows, requires a published employment figure in both releases, and sorts the arithmetic difference between the two reported totals. The source data is annual and historical, so this page does not describe current conditions.

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This report compares published national Census County Business Patterns employment totals for 2022 and 2023; suppressed values are excluded rather than estimated. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2023.

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.