Employment Situation

January 09, 2009
Nonfarm payroll employment declined sharply in December, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.8 to 7.2 percent. Payroll employment fell by 524,000 over the month and by 1.9 million over the last 4 months of 2008. In December, job losses were large and widespread across most major industry sectors. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

Current CES Economic News Releases

• Employment Situation Summary (HTML) (PDF)
• Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation (HTML) (PDF)
• Current Employment Statistics Highlights, Monthly (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.
• UPDATED Upcoming Release Dates through 2009.

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

All CES Tables »

BENCHMARK INFORMATION

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

All CES Tables »

Tables from Employment and Earnings

Historical

• B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by major industry sector, historical
• B-2. Average hours and earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls by major industry sector, 1964 to date

All CES Tables »

Databases

Database Name	Special Notice	Top Picks	One Screen	Multi- Screen	Tables	Text Files
Tutorials: For help, try these tutorials
Employment, Hours, and Earnings - National (Current Employment Statistics - CES)

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

More Tools

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

All CES Databases »

• NEW Monthly Employment Situation Report: Quick Guide to Methods and Measurement Issues
• Technical notes to establishment survey data
  • Introduction (Relationship and comparability with Household and other surveys) (PDF)
  • Details on Data Collection, Concepts, Estimating Methods, Sample, and other aspects of the Establishment Survey
  • Seasonal adjustment (PDF)
  • Employment Revisions and Sample Collection Rates, detailed tables and technical information
• 2007 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes from Bureau of the Census
  • Documentation on SIC to NAICS 2002 conversion
• UPDATED Seasonal Adjustment Files and Documentation -- Technical details and related research on the CES implementation of concurrent seasonal adjustment, including input files used during the latest production run.
• Effects of Hurricane Katrina on BLS Data Collection and Estimation
• CES Report Forms for Establishments
• Related Research

• 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)
• Monthly Labor Review Articles by CES staff
  • NEW Takeoff and descent of airline employment(Full text in PDF 366K)
  • Payroll employment in 2007: the slowdown (Full text in PDF 366K)
  • Recent employment trends in the construction industry (PDF)
  • Recent employment trends in residential and nonresidential construction (Abstract) (Excerpt) (Full text in PDF 64K)
  • Two new construction employment series for specialty trade contractors (Abstract) (Excerpt) (Full text in PDF 83K)

People Are Asking...

1. How can I find out about the methods and measurement issues associated with the monthly Employment Situation report?
2. Where can I find out about revisions to payroll employment numbers?
3. What is NAICS?
4. How do reservists impact CES?
5. What is the establishment payroll survey?
6. What is the CES definition of employment?
7. Can I get occupational data from the CES survey?
8. Are part time workers counted in your survey?
9. Do hours and earnings statistics include overtime?
10. What kind of hours and earnings data are available?
11. Are workers in Puerto Rico included in national CES estimates?

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the establishment payroll survey?
2. What is the CES definition of employment?
3. Are part time workers counted in your survey?
4. Who is included in data for production or nonsupervisory workers?
5. How do reservists impact CES?
6. Are workers in Puerto Rico included in national CES estimates?
7. Are undocumented immigrants counted in the surveys?
8. Why are there two monthly measures of employment?
9. Does the establishment survey sample include small firms?
10. Has the establishment survey understated employment growth because it excludes the self-employed?

All CES FAQs »

• NEW Notice of Series Changes with the Release of Data on February 6, 2009
• Preliminary Benchmark Announcement
• NAICS 2012 Comment Period Open
• Issues in Labor Statistics: How the Business Birth/Death Model Improves Payroll Employment Estimates
• Changes to the Current Employment Statistics Survey Hours and Earnings Series - updated on January 9, 2009
• Experimental hours and earnings series, including charts and tables
• Employment from the BLS household and payroll surveys: summary of recent trends (PDF)
• Change to CES data access with release of data on May 4, 2007
• Series Changes related to the Update to NAICS 2007

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 for your assistance.

Telephone: (202) 691-6555
Fax: (202) 691-6641
If you have 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