Change in Industry Classification Systems

With the release of the January 2003 data on March 20, 2003, the CES State and area Nonfarm Payroll series underwent a number of changes. The basis for industry classification changed from the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification System (SIC) to the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The NAICS conversion involved major definitional changes to many of the published SIC-based series. While SIC-based series are no longer produced, historical time series were reconstructed as part of the NAICS conversion process. The total nonfarm employment series retained their current beginning dates. For State and area series below the total nonfarm level, the NAICS-based reconstruction effort covered only the All Employee (AE) series; all other datatypes have series starting in January 2001. For further information on the NAICS conversion, as well as other changes in the state and metropolitan area industry employment series, please visit http://www.bls.gov/sae/saenaics.htm.

The NAICS conversion for national level data took place with the release of May 2003 industry employment estimates on June 6, 2003. For total nonfarm and other high-level aggregates, the national NAICS-based history begins in January 1939, the current starting date for these series. For more detailed series, the starting date varies depending on the scope of the definitional changes between SIC and NAICS. However, all published series have a NAICS-based history extending back to at least January 1990. For further information on the national NAICS conversion as well as other changes, please visit http://www.bls.gov/ces/cesnaics.htm.

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Last Modified Date: October 7, 2003