economy_industry_wages_county_year_naics
QCEW wages by county, year, and NAICS — long format (E3). Tier A.
tier —admin_record
overview
overview
100,776 rows - county x NAICS x year. QCEW wage data parallel to employment table.
current vintage — 2024 annual averages
history — QCEW NAICS-based wages: 2001-present
provenance
source & licensing
authority
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
dataset
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)
methodology
license
—
citation
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. QCEW - wages by county x NAICS, 1990-2024.
schema
fields
| name | type | definition |
|---|---|---|
| annual_avg_wkly_wage | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Average weekly wage per employee, calculated as total annual wages divided by average annual employment divided by 52. Higher values indicate better-paying industry-ownership groups. |
| avg_annual_pay | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Average annual pay per employee, calculated as total annual wages divided by average annual employment. Higher values indicate greater per-worker compensation in the industry-ownership group. |
| country_id | string | ISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables). |
| county_idkey | string | 5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Joins dim.counties on county_id. |
| disclosure_code | string | BLS confidentiality disclosure code indicating whether data has been suppressed to protect the identity of individual employers. A value of 'N' means not disclosed (data withheld); blank indicates data is fully published. |
| naics_codekey | string | North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code identifying the industry sector or subsector for the establishment group. A value of '10' typically denotes all industries combined; more specific codes represent finer industry breakdowns.Joins dim.naics_codes on naics_code. |
| ownership_code | string | BLS ownership type code classifying establishments by sector: private (5), federal government (1), state government (2), local government (3), or all ownerships combined (0). |
| state_id | string | 2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Joins dim.states on state_id. |
| total_annual_wages | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Total wages and salaries paid to all employees in the industry-ownership group during the calendar year. Higher values indicate greater aggregate wage expenditure in the sector. |
| yearkey | int64 | Reference year of the observation. |
relationships
joins
primary key
county_id, naics_code, year
common joins
dim.geographies on county_id
economy_industry_employment_county_year_naics on (county_id, naics_code, year)
economy_personal_income_county_year on (county_id, year)
usage
how to use this table
method
QCEW total quarterly wages summed across employers by county x NAICS x ownership. Average annual pay = total annual wages / annual average employment.
do not use for
Hourly wages (no hours data); benefits or total compensation (wages only); non-wage income; comparison across NAICS revisions without crosswalk.
known issues
Same suppression rules as employment table. Average pay can be misleading when establishment composition shifts within NAICS.
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last updated · May 5, 2026