Trends in ESOP Transactions

The NCEO used data from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to estimate trends in the number of new ESOPs created from 2007 and 2011, as well as the average value of stock purchased per transaction. The number of ESOP transactions was close to flat from 2007 to 2008, but fell by approximately 40% in 2009 and remained at roughly the same level in 2010. The median value of company stock in the transactions reported in the DOL data was $1.4 million in 2007, and increased to nearly $2.0 million in 2008 before falling to $1.2 million in 2010. The average value of company stock was much higher (between $4.4 and $6.6 million, except for 2008 when the average value was $17.2 million), suggesting that some much larger transactions happened in 2008. The data is approximate, and only includes ESOPs that received company shares in the same year they were established.