Business Entry and Exit in Oregon
June 15, 2026Businesses are constantly evolving. Some establishments grow and add jobs, while others contract. New businesses continue to enter the market, while others exit. The Business Employment Dynamics (BED) program tracks these changes by linking Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) records across quarters to create a longitudinal dataset of employment activity for each establishment. Gross job gains come from establishments that are expanding or opening, while gross job losses result from establishments that are contracting or closing. BED publishes establishment counts for each type of job flow, along with their associated job gains and losses.
In BED data, establishment openings and closings are based on employment in the third month of each quarter. An establishment opening is one either with positive employment for the first time in the current quarter, with no links to the previous quarter, or with positive employment in the current quarter following zero employment in the previous quarter. A closing is one with positive employment in the prior quarter and with either zero employment reported in the current quarter or an inactive status in the current quarter.
Business openings and closings are key components of labor market change. Between 1992 and 2025 in Oregon, job gains from establishment openings accounted for an average of 18% of gross job gains each quarter, and job losses from establishment closings made up a similar share of gross job losses.
Establishment Openings and Closings
Establishment openings in Oregon generally followed cyclical economic patterns from the early 1990s through the pre-pandemic period, increasing during economic expansions and softening during downturns. After rising through the 1990s and peaking in the second quarter of 2000, the number of business openings fluctuated between 5,000 and 6,000 for most of the next two decades. From 2017 to 2019, openings moved into a higher range and remained above 6,000 establishments. After the pandemic recession, Oregon experienced unusually large swings in openings, mostly ranging from 6,000 to 9,000 before falling to 5,400 in the third quarter of 2025.
Establishment closings trended downward during the recovery periods following both the 2001 recession and the Great Recession, before rising again later in the expansions. While the 2001 recession had relatively limited impact on establishment closings, the Great Recession brought a sharp increase in business closures, with the number peaking in the first quarter of 2009. Establishment closings reached an unprecedented level during the pandemic recession in the second quarter of 2020. After the pandemic spike, closings fell back but remained volatile and gradually edged upward in recent quarters.
Composition of Establishment Openings and Closings
BED leverages the longitudinal structure of its database to separate establishment openings into births and reopenings. Establishment births are businesses reporting positive employment either for the first time or after four consecutive quarters with zero employment. They are different from those that reopen with positive employment after a shorter period of closure. Similarly, establishment closings can be divided into deaths and temporary shutdowns. Establishment deaths are businesses with no employment or zero employment reported in the third month of four consecutive quarters following the last quarter with positive employment, while temporary shutdowns refer to establishments that temporarily close but reopen later.
Historically, establishment births generally made up the majority of establishment openings in Oregon. One notable exception occurred during the Great Recession when births declined while the reopenings remained relatively steady. In the second and third quarters of 2009, reopenings outnumbered births. After the recession, births gradually increased through the recovery and into the years leading up to the pandemic.
Establishment deaths were often the larger component of closings in earlier recessions. During the 2001 recession, deaths averaged about 3,070 each quarter and accounted for 56% of establishment closings in Oregon. During the Great Recession, deaths increased more sharply, peaking at 4,400 in the first quarter of 2009 and making up 61% of establishment closings.
The pandemic recession showed a different pattern from earlier downturns. In the second quarter of 2020, about 6,900 establishments in Oregon temporarily shut down, making up 55% of all establishment closings. These temporary shutdowns accounted for 31,600 job losses out of 51,250 jobs lost from establishment closures. In the following quarter, reopenings rose to 5,930, nearly offsetting the number of temporary closures from the prior quarter. However, the surge of reopenings brought back only 18,900 jobs. After the initial pandemic disruption, reopenings and temporary shutdowns returned close to their pre-pandemic averages. With these temporary components playing a smaller role, recent changes in openings and closings were driven primarily by births and deaths.
Establishment births increased sharply in the third quarter of 2020 and remained elevated but uneven through 2022. After reaching an all‑time high in the fourth quarter of 2022, new employer activity trended downward but stayed above pre‑pandemic levels until the third quarter of 2025, when births fell to 2,900.
During the second quarter of 2020, establishment deaths surged to a historic high of 5,700 before falling back in the following quarter. After the initial decline, the number of establishment deaths trended upward, remaining well above the pre-pandemic levels.
Births Minus Deaths: Net Establishment Change
Looking only at openings and closings can blur the difference between temporary disruptions and longer-term business changes. Net establishment change, measured as establishment births minus deaths, indicates whether new employer business creation outpaces permanent business exits.
In the late 1990s, net establishment change weakened from stronger gains seen earlier in the decade. During the 2001 recession, net change turned negative in the second quarter of 2001 and remained negative into the first quarter of 2002. Births then outpaced deaths through the mid-2000s expansion before the pattern reversed again during the Great Recession. The downturn had a more persistent effect than the 2001 recession, with establishment deaths continuing to outnumber births though the first quarter of 2010. The early recovery was weak and uneven, but after the fourth quarter of 2012, net establishment change remained consistently positive until the COVID-19 pandemic.
The post-pandemic pattern was much less stable in Oregon. Net establishment change plunged in the second quarter of 2020 as deaths surged, then quickly rebounded in the following quarters. Instead of settling into a sustained positive trend, the series continued to swing above and below zero, with volatile establishment births alongside elevated permanent exits. In the latest available birth and death data, establishment deaths outpaced births for three consecutive quarters from the second quarter through the fourth quarter of 2024.
Conclusion
Oregon’s business entry and exit patterns became more volatile after the COVID-19 pandemic recession. Temporary shutdowns and reopenings drove much of the initial disruption, while recent trends reflected a shift toward declining establishment births and elevated permanent exits.
An establishment that closes during the quarter may be a death, but the BED program waits three quarters to determine whether the closing is permanent or is just a temporary shutdown. Therefore, there is a lag of three quarters for the publication of establishment death statistics. For more information about BED data, please go to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Business Employment Dynamics.