economy_employment_levels_county_year
QCEW county-total employment and wages joined with LAUS labor force (C1). Tier A (QCEW) / Tier C (LAUS fields). History 1990-present.
overview
3,221 counties x ~35 years. QCEW is a near-census of employer reports under unemployment insurance - covers ~95% of all wage and salary employment. LAUS labor force is modeled.
current vintage — 2024 annual averages
history — QCEW: 1990 to present (NAICS-based from 2001; SIC prior); LAUS: 1976 to present
source & licensing
fields
| name | type | definition |
|---|---|---|
| average_annual_pay | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Average annual pay per covered job, computed as total annual wages divided by average monthly employment. Higher values indicate greater per-job compensation. |
| average_weekly_wage | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Average weekly wage per covered job, derived from QCEW quarterly wage totals divided by the number of weeks in the period. Higher values indicate greater weekly earning levels. |
| country_idkey | string | ISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables).Part of primary key. |
| county_idkey | string | 5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Part of primary key. Joins dim.counties on county_id. |
| employed | int64 · count | Number of civilian residents estimated to be employed, sourced from BLS LAUS. Unlike QCEW total_employment, this is a residence-based measure and excludes multiple job-holding. Higher values indicate greater labor market absorption. |
| labor_force | int64 · count | Civilian labor force estimate for the county from BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), representing the sum of employed and unemployed residents. Higher values indicate a larger working-age resident population actively participating in the labor market. |
| state_idkey | string | 2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Part of primary key. Joins dim.states on state_id. |
| total_annual_wages_thousands | int64 | Total annual wages in thousands of dollars (BLS QCEW source is in dollars; divided by 1000). |
| total_employment | int64 · count | Total number of jobs covered by unemployment insurance in the county for the year, sourced from BLS QCEW. Includes both full-time and part-time jobs; a worker holding multiple jobs is counted multiple times. Higher values indicate greater employment volume. |
| unemployed | int64 · count | Number of civilian residents estimated to be unemployed (actively seeking work), sourced from BLS LAUS. Computed as labor_force minus employed. Higher values indicate weaker local labor market conditions. |
| yearkey | int64 | Reference year of the observation.Part of primary key. |
joins
how to use this table
QCEW counts employees from state UI tax records, summed across employers in county. LAUS uses CPS state-level estimates plus claims data and CES employment to produce monthly modeled county labor force, employment, and unemployment.
Self-employment (QCEW excludes most self-employed); federal civilian and military counts (separate data); single-month change in small counties (LAUS modeling is volatile <50k labor force).
QCEW suppresses small cells. LAUS revisions: each March, BLS revises prior year. Tier mismatch: QCEW is Tier A administrative, LAUS is Tier C model - do not pool fields naively.