docs/us_economy/economy_industry_employment_county_year_naics

economy_industry_employment_county_year_naics

QCEW employment by county, year, NAICS, and ownership — long format (E1). Tier A with suppression flags. History 1990-present.

tier aadmin_recordeconomyblsqcewemploymentnaicsindustrylong_format
grain
county-year-naics
years
2024
cadence
Quarterly; annual averages finalized 9-12 months after year end
overview

overview

100,776 rows aggregated to county-NAICS-year. Long format: NAICS-2 supersectors loaded; NAICS-4/6 detail not.

current vintage — 2024 annual averages

history — QCEW NAICS-based: 2001-present; SIC pre-2001 with crosswalk required

provenance

source & licensing

authority
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
dataset
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) — county × NAICS (2024)
license
Public domain (U.S. Federal Government work)
citation
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW - county x NAICS, 1990-2024.
schema

fields

nametypedefinition
annual_avg_emplvlint64 · workersAnnual average employment level — the number of covered workers — computed as the average of four quarterly employment counts for this county-industry-ownership cell. Higher values indicate greater workforce size.
annual_avg_estabsint64 · countAnnual average number of establishments (business locations) in this county-industry-ownership cell, computed as the average of four quarterly counts. Higher values indicate more business locations operating in the sector.
annual_avg_wkly_wageint64 · dollars (nominal)Average weekly wage per worker, derived by dividing total annual wages by annual average employment and then by 52. Higher values indicate greater average compensation per worker per week.
avg_annual_payint64 · dollars (nominal)Average annual pay per worker, computed as total annual wages divided by annual average employment. Equivalent to annual_avg_wkly_wage × 52; higher values indicate greater average annual compensation.
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.
disclosure_codestringBLS confidentiality suppression flag. A value of 'N' indicates the record is not disclosed to protect the identity of individual employers; blank indicates the data is fully published.
naics_codekeystringNAICS industry classification code identifying the industry sector for this row. Matches the BLS QCEW NAICS hierarchy; '10' represents total all industries.Part of primary key. Joins dim.naics_codes on naics_code.
ownership_codestringBLS ownership type code for this row (e.g. '1' = Federal government, '2' = State government, '3' = Local government, '5' = Private, '0' = Total all ownership). Used to disaggregate employment by employer type.
state_idkeystring2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Part of primary key. Joins dim.states on state_id.
total_annual_wagesint64 · dollars (nominal)Total wages paid to covered workers in this county-industry-ownership cell over the full calendar year. Includes salaries, bonuses, and other compensation reported to state unemployment insurance programs.
yearkeyint64Reference year of the observation.Part of primary key.
relationships

joins

primary key
county_id, state_id, country_id, year, naics_code
common joins
dim.geographies on county_id
economy_industry_wages_county_year_naics on (county_id, naics_code, year)
economy_industrial_concentration_county_year on (county_id, year)
usage

how to use this table

method

Direct extract of QCEW county x NAICS x ownership rows. Pipeline currently loads NAICS-2 supersector level. own_code distinguishes private (5), federal (1), state (2), local (3).

do not use for

Sub-county geography (county is finest grain); workers vs jobs (QCEW counts jobs - multi-jobholders are double-counted across employers); self-employment.

known issues

Suppression for confidentiality affects ~10-15% of small county-NAICS cells; suppressed rows are flagged.

last updated · Jul 7, 2026