Current Employment Statistics - Earnings and Industry Employment Monthly Estimates
About
The Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data program, the Current Employment Statistics (CES), produces detailed, monthly industry estimates of nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings of workers on payrolls, by industry and geography.
CES National Estimates produces data for the nation, and CES State and Metro Area (SAE) produces estimates for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and about 450 metropolitan areas and divisions. Each month, CES surveys approximately 145,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 697,000 individual worksites. The statistics are fundamental inputs in economic decision processes at all levels of government, private enterprise, and organized labor.
CES estimates are among the most visible and widely-used Principal Federal Economic Indicators (PFEIs). CES data are also among the timeliest of the PFEIs, with their release each month by the BLS in the Employment Situation news release, typically on the first Friday of each month.
The CES monthly estimates of employment, hours, and earnings are based on a sample of U.S. nonagricultural establishments. Information is derived from approximately 295,000 reports (from a sample of 150,000 employers with State Unemployment Insurance (UI) accounts comprised of 697,000 individual worksites), as of April 2020. Each month, firms report their employment, payroll, and hours on BLS-790 forms. The sample is collected under a probability-based design. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands collect an additional 8,500 reports.
Informing the Public
The CES provides:
- Nonfarm payroll employment in the Employment Situation Summary
- Real average hourly earnings in the Real Earnings Summary
- Real weekly earnings
- Employment and earnings data tables
For more data and information, see also:
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- Resource Publication Date: 2011
- Posted by: Damon Jones
- Posted in: LMI Central