The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) Program is a Federal-State cooperative program between the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the California EDD’s Labor Market Information Division (LMID). The QCEW program produces a comprehensive tabulation of employment and wage information for workers covered by California Unemployment Insurance (UI) laws and Federal workers covered by the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program. The QCEW program serves as a near census of monthly employment and quarterly wage information by 6-digit industry codes from the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at the national, state, and county levels. At the national level, the QCEW program publishes employment and wage data for nearly every NAICS industry. At the state and local area level, the QCEW program publishes employment and wage data down to the 6-digit NAICS industry level, if disclosure restrictions are met. In accordance with the BLS policy, data provided to the Bureau in confidence are used only for specified statistical purposes and are not published. The BLS withholds publication of Unemployment Insurance law-covered employment and wage data for any industry level when necessary to protect the identity of cooperating employers. Data from the QCEW program serve as an important input to many BLS programs. The Current Employment Statistics and the Occupational Employment Statistics programs use the QCEW data as the benchmark source for employment. The UI administrative records collected under the QCEW program serve as a sampling frame for the BLS establishment surveys. In addition, the data serve as an input to other federal and state programs. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the Department of Commerce uses the QCEW data as the base for developing the wage and salary component of personal income. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and California's EDD use the QCEW data to administer the Unemployment Insurance program. The QCEW data accurately reflect the extent of coverage of California’s UI laws and are used to measure UI revenues; national, state and local area employment; and total and UI taxable wage trends. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes new QCEW data in its County Employment and Wages news release on a quarterly basis. The BLS also publishes a subset of its quarterly data through the Create Customized Tables system, and full quarterly industry detail data at all geographic levels.
This dataset has the following 15 columns:
| Column Name | API Column Name | Data Type | Description | Sample Values |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Area Type | area_type | text | The type of geographic area: County, California-Statewide, or United States | County United States California - Statewide view top 100 |
| Area Name | area_name | text | The name of the area chosen from the Area Type. | United States California Los Angeles County Orange County San Diego County view top 100 |
| Year | year | number | The referenced 4-digit calendar year | 2004 2005 2006 2007 2019 view top 100 |
| Quarter | time_period | text | The referenced calendar quarter. 1st Qtr = January – March; 2nd Qtr = April – June; 3rd Qtr = July – Sept; 4th Qtr = Oct – Dec | 3rd Qtr 2nd Qtr 1st Qtr 4th Qtr Annual view top 100 |
| Ownership | ownership | text | Refers to legal proprietorship such as Private; Federal, State, or Local Government. | Private Federal Government Local Government State Government Total Covered view top 100 |
| NAICS Level | naics_code_level | number | Refers to the 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, or 6-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) level. | 6 5 4 3 2 view top 100 |
| NAICS Code | naics_code | text | The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is based on the primary business activity (products produced, distributed, or services rendered) by the establishment. | 10 102 1021 1025 1028 view top 100 |
| Industry Name | industry_name | text | Offcial industry name for NAICS Code. | Public Administration Total, All Industries Postal Service Elementary and Secondary Schools Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activi view top 100 |
| Establishments | establishments | number | An economic unit that produces goods and services, usually at a single physical location, and engaged in one or predominantly one industry activity. | 4 3 5 6 1 view top 100 |
| Average Monthly Employment | avg_employment | number | Computed as the average of the three monthly employment figures in a given calendar quarter. | 0 11 14 10 13 view top 100 |
| 1st Month Emp | _1st_month_emp | number | The number of all full- and part-time employees who worked during or received pay subject to UI wages for the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. | 0 11 15 14 12 view top 100 |
| 2nd Month Emp | _2nd_month_emp | number | The number of all full- and part-time employees who worked during or received pay subject to UI wages for the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. | 0 11 13 12 15 view top 100 |
| 3rd Month Emp | _3rd_month_emp | number | The number of all full- and part-time employees who worked during or received pay subject to UI wages for the pay period that includes the 12th of the month. | 0 12 15 10 13 view top 100 |
| Total Wages (All Workers) | total_wages_all_workers | number | The total amount of wages paid to UI-covered workers for services performed during the quarter. | 0 37996 16460528 11558 23400 view top 100 |
| Average Weekly Wages | avg_weekly_wages | number | Computed by dividing the Total Wages by the Average Monthly Employment and then dividing by the number of weeks (13) in the quarter. | 0 757 738 700 741 view top 100 |