CES National 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

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. Employment: normal seasonal movements, over-the-month changes, and tests of significance (in thousands) (XLSX)
• Table 2. Detailed industry employment ranked by over-the-month changes, tests of significance, and prior 3-month average changes, seasonally adjusted (in thousands) (XLSX)
• Table 3A. Employment changes and tests of significance, seasonally adjusted (in thousands) (XLSX)
• Table 3B. Over-the-month employment changes compared with recent averages, seasonally adjusted (in thousands) (XLSX)
• Table 4. Over-the-year employment changes and tests of significance, seasonally adjusted (in thousands) (XLSX)
• Table 5. Average weekly hours and average hourly earnings of all employees: normal seasonal movements, over-the-month changes, and tests of significance (XLSX)
• Table 6. Over-the-month and over-the-year changes in aggregate weekly hours and payrolls of all employees, seasonally adjusted (in thousands) (XLSX)
• Table 7. Most recent industry-specific employment peak and trough, and changes from peak and trough to current employment, seasonally adjusted (in thousands) (XLSX)
• Tables A-C2: 90 percent confidence intervals for employment, hours, overtime hours, and earnings (XLSX)

BENCHMARK INFORMATION

• Benchmark Article (HTML) (PDF)
  • Comparison of All Employees, seasonally adjusted (TXT) (XLSX)
  • Comparison of All Employees, not seasonally adjusted (TXT) (XLSX)

All CES Benchmark 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
• B-1b. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail, not seasonally adjusted

Archived Tables from Employment and Earnings - Archived tables are available in PDF format.

All CES Employment and Earnings 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)

IMPORTANT Effective with the release of May estimates on June 2, 2017, the Current Employment Statistics program reorganized the CE datasets stored as text files for download from the BLS website.

CES National Data Access Tips

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

More CES National Data Access Tools

• CES National Historical "B" tables – Looking for historical data from the Employment Situation news release tables? Use these data extraction tables.
• Series Report – Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.
• UPDATED CES National vintage data – Looking for published employment values as of a specific reference month? These tables display CES published employment values for a given reference month across time.
• Flat text files – For those who want it all. Download a flat file of the entire database or large subset of the database.

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
• Division of Current Employment Statistics Articles
• NEW An average mystery in hours and earnings data entails a weighty explanation
• NEW Employment growth moderates in 2017, continuing a lengthy expansionary period
• Benchmarking the Current Employment Statistics survey: the past, present, and future
• Benchmarking the Current Employment Statistics national estimates
• Benchmarking the Current Employment Statistics state and area estimates
• Benchmarking the Current Employment Statistics survey: perspectives on current research
• A quarterly benchmarking procedure for the Current Employment Statistics program
• 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 2018 CES Preliminary Benchmark Revision
• 2017 CES Benchmark revision
• IMPORTANT With the release of January 2018 data on February 2, 2018, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program implemented publication changes related to the annual sample review and the conversion to NAICS 2017.
• IMPORTANT With the release of January 2018 data on February 2, 2018, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey revised the basis for industry classification from the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to the 2017 NAICS.
• IMPORTANT The Current Employment Statistics program corrected errors in estimates for all employment, hours, and earnings estimates in securities and armored car services, and all employees in security guards and patrols and armored car services with the release of January 2018 estimates on February 2, 2018.
• IMPORTANT The Current Employment Statistics program corrected processing errors in estimates for women employees and production and nonsupervisory employees series in five smaller industries within financial activities, professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality with the release of January 2018 estimates on February 2, 2018.
• Effective with the release of May estimates on June 2, 2017, the Current Employment Statistics program reorganized the CE datasets stored as text files for download from the BLS website.
• Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and September 2017 payroll data
• With the release of January 2017 data on February 3, 2017, the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program implemented publication changes related to the annual sample review.
• Effective with the release of January 2017 data on February 3, 2017, CES began using an improved methodology to select models for annual seasonal adjustment processing.
• Seeing Significance: New Chart Showing Confidence Intervals for Nonfarm Employment Changes
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• UPDATED Experimental Size Class Employment, Hours, and Earnings Series from the Current Employment Statistics Survey
• IMPORTANT The Current Employment Statistics program corrected errors in estimates for all employment, hours, and earnings estimates in securities and armored car services, and all employees in security guards and patrols and armored car services with the release of January 2018 estimates on February 2, 2018.

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