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 aadmin_recordeconomyblsqcewhhiconcentrationpredominant_sectornaicsdiversification
grain
county-year
years
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) — NAICS-2 private-sector employment
license
Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)
citation
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW - derived NAICS-2 concentration metrics, 1990-2024.
schema

fields

nametypedefinition
country_idkeystringISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables).Part of primary key.
county_idkeystring5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Part of primary key. Joins dim.counties on county_id.
economic_concentration_hhifloat64 · index (0–1)Herfindahl-Hirschman Index computed as the sum of squared private-sector employment shares across NAICS-2 sectors within the county. Higher values indicate greater concentration of employment in fewer industries; a value of 1 represents complete specialization in a single sector.
predominant_sectorstringNAICS 2-digit sector code and label for the private-sector industry with the largest employment share in the county-year.
predominant_sector_sharefloat64 · share (0–1)Fraction of total private-sector employment accounted for by the predominant sector. Higher values indicate that employment is more concentrated in this leading industry.
runner_up_sectorstringNAICS 2-digit sector code and label for the private-sector industry with the second-largest employment share in the county-year.
runner_up_sector_sharefloat64 · share (0–1)Fraction of total private-sector employment accounted for by the runner-up sector. Together with predominant_sector_share, captures the two-sector employment concentration.
state_idkeystring2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Part of primary key. Joins dim.states on state_id.
yearkeyint64Reference year of the observation.Part of primary key.
relationships

joins

primary key
county_id, state_id, country_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 · Jul 7, 2026