U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the Current Employment Statistics program Internet site < http://www.bls.gov/ces/home.htm >.
INTERNET LINKS
http://www.bls.gov/ces/home.htm
Current Employment Statistics (CES) Survey
The establishment payroll survey, known as the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, is administered to a monthly
sample of nearly 400,000 business establishments nationwide. The primary statistics derived from the survey are monthly
estimates of employment, hours, and earnings for the Nation, States, and major metropolitan areas. Preliminary national
estimates for a given reference month are typically published on the first Friday of the following month, in conjunction with
data derived from a separate survey of households, the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is the source of statistics
on the activities of the labor force, including unemployment and the Nation’s unemployment rate.
The establishment survey produces nonfarm payroll estimates for: all employees, women workers, production workers,
average weekly hours, average hourly earnings (constant dollar and current dollar), average weekly earnings, average
overtime, index of aggregate hours and payrolls, and diffusion indexes. All data are available not seasonally adjusted, and
some data are available seasonally adjusted.
Employment is the total number of persons on establishment payrolls employed full or part time who received pay for any part of the
pay period that includes the 12th day of the month. Temporary and intermittent employees are included, as are any workers who are
on paid sick leave, on paid holiday, or who work during only part of the specified pay period. A striking worker who only works a small
portion of the survey period, and is paid, would be included as employed under the CES definitions. Persons on the payroll of more
than one establishment are counted in each establishment. Data exclude proprietors, self-employed, unpaid family or volunteer
workers, farm workers, and domestic workers. Persons on layoff the entire pay period, on leave without pay, on strike for the entire
period or who have not yet reported for work are not counted as employed. Government employment covers only civilian workers.
With the release of NAICS-based estimates in June 2003, the scope and definition of Federal Government employment estimates
changed due to a change in source data and estimation methods. The previous series was an end-of-month federal employee count
produced by the Office of Personnel Management, and it excluded some workers, mostly employees who work in Department of
Defense-owned establishments such as military base commissaries. Beginning in June 2003, the CES national series began to include
these workers. Also, federal government employment is now estimated from a sample of federal establishments, is benchmarked
annually to counts from unemployment insurance tax records, and reflects employee counts as of the pay period including the 12th of
the month, consistent with other CES industry series. The historical time series for federal government employment was revised to
reflect these changes.
National estimates of average weekly hours and average hourly earnings are made for the private sector, with detail for
about 500 private industries as well as for overtime hours in manufacturing.
Hours and earnings are derived from reports of gross payrolls and corresponding paid hours for production workers,
construction workers, or nonsupervisory workers in the service sector. The payroll for workers covered by the CES survey
is reported before deductions of any kind, e.g. for old-age and unemployment insurance, withholding tax, union dues or
retirement plans. Included in the payroll reports is pay for overtime, vacations, holidays and sick leave paid directly by the
firm. Bonuses, commisions, and other types of non-wage cash payments are excluded unless they are earned and payed
regularly (at least once a month). Employee benefits paid by the employer, as well as payments in kind, are
excluded.
Total hours during the pay period include all hours worked (including overtime hours), and hours paid for holidays,
vacations, and sick leave. Total hours differs from the concept of scheduled hours worked. The average weekly hours
reflects effects of numerous factors such as unpaid absenteeism, labor turnover, part-time work, strikes, and fluctuations in
work schedules for economic reasons. Overtime hours in manufacturing are collected where overtime premiums were paid
if hours were in excess of the number of straight time hours in a workday or workweek.
*
With the release of May 2003 data on June 6, 2003, the CES National Nonfarm Payroll
series underwent a complete industry reclassification, changing from the 1987 Standard
Industrial Classification System (SIC) to the 2002 North American Industry Classification
System (NAICS). SIC-based data is no longer produced or published, and is available
through April 2003 only.
For historical Standard Industrial Classification data, see BLS web site
< http://www.bls.gov/ces/cesoldsic.htm >]
referenced on dataset section Notes (#2)
