Small Businesses Are Becoming More Important for Jobs

What the Chart Shows:

The chart tells us about job openings in the U.S. based on the size of businesses. It compares data from February 2020 (Feb-20) and February 2025 (Feb-25). Businesses are grouped by the number of workers they have: 1-249, 250-4999, and more than 5000.

Small Businesses (1-249 workers):

In Feb-20, 72% of job openings were in these businesses.

In Feb-25, this went up to 77%.

This means more jobs are coming from small businesses now.

Medium Businesses (250-4999 workers):

In Feb-20, 26% of job openings were here.

In Feb-25, this dropped to 19%.Fewer jobs are coming from medium-sized businesses.

Large Businesses (more than 5000 workers):

In Feb-20, only 2% of job openings were in these businesses.

In Feb-25, this went up a little to 3%.

Big businesses still have very few job openings.

Key Point:

Small businesses with less than 250 workers are creating most of the new jobs. In 2025, almost 80% of job openings are in these small companies. Over the past five years, small businesses have become even more important for jobs in the U.S.

Source: The data comes from JOLTS, BLS, Haver Analytics, and Apollo Chief Economist.

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