News release: “U.S. businesses with paid employees lost almost 104,000 establishments in 2008, bringing the total number to 7.6 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, the total number of people they employed rose to 121 million, with businesses adding approximately 300,000 employees to their payrolls. These findings come from County Business Patterns: 2008, which provides the only detailed annual information on the number of establishments, employees, and quarterly and annual payroll for most of the 1,100 industries covered at the national, state and county levels. Among states and the District of Columbia, Florida saw the largest percentage decrease in business locations, a 3.1 percent decline from 2007, representing more than 16,000 establishments. (See Table 1 Excel | PDF) Among Florida’s largest counties, Broward accounted for nearly 2,000 losses, followed by Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, which lost 1,900 and 1,300 businesses, respectively. (See Table 2 Excel | PDF).”