docs/us_economy/economy_industrial_concentration_county_year

economy_industrial_concentration_county_year

HHI and predominant sector from NAICS-2 private-sector employment shares (E2). Tier A. Powers scorecard concentration metrics.

tier —admin_recordeconomyblsqcewhhiconcentrationpredominant_sectornaicsdiversification
grain
county-year
years
1990 – 2024
cadence
Annual (recomputed when QCEW annual averages finalize)
overview

overview

3,221 counties. QCEW NAICS-2 private sector coverage.

current vintage — 2024

history — NAICS-based: 2001-present; SIC-based pre-2001

provenance

source & licensing

authority
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
dataset
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)
license
citation
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW - derived NAICS-2 concentration metrics, 1990-2024.
schema

fields

nametypedefinition
country_idstringISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables).
county_idkeystring5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Joins dim.counties on county_id.
economic_concentration_hhifloat64 · index (0–10000)Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for the county's industry mix, computed as the sum of squared employment (or establishment) shares across all sectors, scaled to 0–10000. Higher values indicate greater concentration of economic activity in fewer industries.
predominant_sectorstringNAICS sector name or code representing the largest share of the county's economic activity in a given year.
predominant_sector_sharefloat64 · share (0–1)Fraction of total county economic activity (e.g. employment or establishments) accounted for by the predominant sector. Higher values indicate greater dependence on a single industry.
runner_up_sectorstringNAICS sector name or code representing the second-largest share of the county's economic activity in a given year.
runner_up_sector_sharefloat64 · share (0–1)Fraction of total county economic activity accounted for by the runner-up sector, i.e. the second-largest industry behind the predominant sector.
state_idstring2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Joins dim.states on state_id.
yearkeyint64Reference year of the observation.
relationships

joins

primary key
county_id, year
common joins
dim.geographies on county_id
economy_industry_employment_county_year_naics on (county_id, year)
economy_industry_group_employment_county_year on (county_id, year)
usage

how to use this table

method

HHI = SUM((employment_share_naics2_i)^2) over private NAICS-2 supersectors. predominant_sector = NAICS-2 with largest share. predominant_sector_share = max share. Government own_code='1','2','3' excluded.

do not use for

Cross-NAICS-revision comparison (NAICS 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2022 introduce small reclassifications); narrow industry concentration (use NAICS-4 or NAICS-6, not loaded here).

known issues

HHI computed at NAICS-2 only; misses concentration in narrow industries. Suppression in small cells biases HHI downward.

last updated · May 5, 2026