Current CES Economic News Releases

• Current Employment Statistics Highlights, Monthly -- a package of charts and analysis featuring the latest industry employment numbers (PDF)
• Real Earnings (HTML) (PDF)
• Strike Report
• Subscribe to the BLS News Service-- receive The Employment Situation and Real Earnings news releases by e-mail.
• Upcoming Release Dates through 2016

Archived

• Archived Employment Situation Releases (1994 forward)
• Archived Commissioners Statements on the Employment Situation (1994 forward)
• Archived Real Earnings Releases (1994 forward)

ANALYTICAL TABLES

• Table 1. Normal seasonal movements, estimated employment change and test of significance, in thousands
• Table 2. Detailed industry employment ranked by change and prior 3-month average change, in thousands, seasonally adjusted
• Table 3. Employment change compared with recent averages, in thousands, seasonally adjusted
• Table 4. Employment change from same month a year ago, in thousands, seasonally adjusted
• Table 5. Estimated change in hours and earnings of all employees, normal seasonal movement and test of significance
• Table 6. Aggregate weekly hours and payrolls of all employees, in thousands, seasonally adjusted
• Table 7. Most recent industry-specific peak and trough employment and change through current month, in thousands

BENCHMARK INFORMATION

• Benchmark Article (HTML) (PDF)
  • Benchmark Comparison File Format Information
  • Comparison of All Employees, seasonally adjusted (TXT) (XLSX)
  • Comparison of All Employees, not seasonally adjusted (TXT) (XLSX)
  • Comparison of Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, seasonally adjusted (TXT) (XLSX)
  • Comparison of Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, not seasonally adjusted (TXT) (XLSX)

All CES Tables »

Tables from Employment and Earnings

Monthly Establishment Data--National

• Summary table B. Employment, hours, and earnings, seasonally adjusted
• B-1a. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail, seasonally adjusted

All CES Tables »

Databases

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	Data Finder	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Tables	Text Files
Employment, Hours, and Earnings - National (Current Employment Statistics - CES)

CES Data Access Tips

CES Published Series – A table displaying the availability, by industry, of both seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted data

Historical data for series in the selected news releases from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National)

• Access to historical data for the 'B' tables of the Employment Situation News Release

Vintage data

• CES vintage data tables that display the published employment values for a given reference month across time

More Tools

• Series Report — Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data

All CES Databases »

• CES NAICS Overview
• BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 2: Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Establishment Survey (PDF)
• CES Technical Notes
  • The Sample
  • Data Collection
  • Classification
  • Available Data
  • Estimation Methods
  • Revisions
  • Table of Figures

• UPDATED Current Employment Statistics Highlights, Monthly (PDF)--a package of charts and analysis featuring the latest industry employment numbers
  • Archived Current Employment Statistics Highlights (August 2004 forward)
• Employment from the BLS household and payroll surveys: summary of recent trends (PDF)
• Division of Current Employment Statistics Articles
  • NEW Employment continued to expand in 2015
  • Current Employment Statistics data and their contributions as key economic indicators
  • One hundred years of Current Employment Statistics data collection
  • More CES articles

People Are Asking...

1. Where can I find CES data about Manufacturing?
2. How can I find out about the methods and measurement issues associated with the monthly Employment Situation report?
3. Where can I find out about revisions to CES employment data?
4. What is NAICS?
5. What was the impact of the October 2013 Federal Government Shutdown on the CES survey?
6. Where can I find more information about the most recent benchmark revision?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the CES Survey?
2. What data are available from CES?
3. How does CES define employment?
4. Are part-time employees counted in the CES survey?
5. How are production and nonsupervisory employees different from all employees in the CES survey?
6. Are undocumented immigrants counted in the CES estimate?
7. How does CES data compare to other programs' data?
8. Does the CES sample include small firms?
9. What employment does the CES survey exclude and how does this affect the estimates?
10. Do the CES hours and earnings estimates include overtime?
11. What is a seasonally adjusted estimate?
12. Why are there multiple monthly measures of employment?

All CES FAQs »

• IMPORTANT Recently, the Current Employment Statistics program celebrated its 100th birthday with a symposium. Click here to watch Alan Greenspan, Jared Bernstein, and Kevin Hassett discuss one of the world’s most-watched economic datasets.
• IMPORTANT CES Benchmark Announcement
• IMPORTANT With the release of January 2016 data on February 5, 2016, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program implemented publication changes. Most of these changes were related to the annual sample review, but others were due to the publication of additional employment data with the first preliminary release of monthly estimates. More information on these changes can be found at http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesnewseries.htm.
• IMPORTANT The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), used by BLS and other statistical agencies to classify industry statistics, is periodically revised. The next NAICS revision is scheduled for 2017. A notice was published in the Federal Register on August 4, 2015, to describe the proposed 2017 changes to NAICS and to invite public comment. Additional information about the use of NAICS at BLS is available at the Bureau's NAICS webpage.
• IMPORTANT The Joint Explanatory Statement that accompanied the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, included language directing the BLS to conduct a review of the methodology used in the collection and reporting of CES survey data for Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The BLS response to Congress is available at http://www.bls.gov/sae/cesreport.htm.
• Experimental Size Class Employment, Hours, and Earnings Series from the Current Employment Statistics Survey

Other BLS Programs

• Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the CES survey (State and Area) --monthly data on employment, hours, and earnings by industry and geographic area.
• Local Area Unemployment Statistics --monthly and annual employment, unemployment, and labor force data for Census regions and divisions, States, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities, by place of residence.
• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages --comprehensive employment and wage data by industry and geographic area for workers covered by State Unemployment Insurance laws.
• Business Employment Dynamics--quarterly data series of job gains and job losses statistics, generated from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program.
• Occupational Employment Statistics--data on employment and wages for over 800 occupations and for about 400 nonfarm industries for the nation, plus occupational data for States and metropolitan areas.
• Sources of BLS Employment Data

Other Useful Links

• Bureau of the Census
• Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

Current Employment Statistics Contacts

Staff members of the Current Employment Statistics are available Monday through Friday 8:30 AM TO 4:30 PM EASTERN TIME for your assistance.

Telephone: (202) 691-6555
Fax: (202) 691-6641
If you have a specific CES data question, please contact us via e-mail.

Written inquiries should be directed to:

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Division of Current Employment Statistics
Suite 4860
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20212-0001