DEFINITIONS

The Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) are derived from state administrative records and basic demographic information from the Census Bureau. Employment totals from the QWI are not exactly comparable with those from other sources. Generally, coverage and definitions differ between the QWI and data about establishments from administrative records (e.g., the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages or QCEW), and about workers from urveys (e.g., the decennial census, the American Community Survey, and the Current Population Survey or CPS.) Detailed information is available in a paper by David Stevens. Employment that is not covered by state unemployment insurance laws, LEHD technical paper TP-2002-16 (220 KB).

Jobs

Just like the QCEW, the QWI count jobs, rather than employed workers (like the CPS). And, like the QCEW, the QWI do not include self employed workers and independent contractor employment, unlike the CPS. For a full description, see http://www.bls.gov/cew/cewover.htm . But unlike the QCEW, the QWI count all jobs within a quarter (rather than just the 12^th of the month), and so the job counts from the QCEW and the QWI will differ.

More specifically, the QWI capture the complexity of workforce dynamics. Because the LED data from which the QWI are derived include all the jobs a worker holds in each quarter, multiple definitions of employment are possible (just as there are multiple definitions of unemployment). The definitions include:

1. All jobs held in a quarter, regardless of length of time the job is held;
2. Jobs held at the beginning of a quarter -- the measure that is closest to that is the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. This measure also shows trends similar to those in surveys based on workers (such as the CPS) although the levels differ;
3. Jobs held at the end of a quarter; and
4. Jobs held for a full quarter (the most stable measure of employment).

Earnings

The measurement of earnings differs among datasets. The earnings measures described here:

• Include gross wages and salaries, bonuses, stock options, tips, and other gratuities, and the value of meals and lodging, where supplied.
• Do not include Old Age Survivor and Disability Insurance, health insurance, workers compensation, unemployment insurance, private pensions, and welfare funds.

Because the QWI measures do not include the number of hours or weeks an employee worked, what appears as low average earnings for a time period and for an industry such as retail trade where much of the work is part time, may be the result of relatively low hourly wages, not working many hours in the time period, or both. This affects thee interpretation of the measure of average earnings. Similarly, high fourth quarter monthly earnings in some industries may reflect end-of-year bonuses and apparently high earnings for older workers may reflect one-time disbursements as they retire.

Updates

Because the data are updated afresh every quarter to reflect new information, the numbers on the website may differ from published reports (which reflected the best information available on the date of publication).

THE MEANING OF THE MEASURES

Note: Only 8 measures are posted to the website. 29 indicators are returned to the Labor Market Information agency in each state (check the QWI Online help and documentation for more information)

CONFIDENTIALITY

The Census Bureau and the state partners are committed to protecting the confidentiality of the data in the LED files. Technically, the approach to avoid disclosure of individual information is to combine cell suppression methodology, controlling key measures to county employment levels as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the addition of statistical noise which means that the statistics that are shown are fuzzy, that is, close to the actual information but not exact. In plainer English, while the statistical techniques the Census Bureau uses mean that final employment statistics are not shown if the numbers in a cell are small, it is not necessary to suppress information in other cells. In addition, measures such as job gains and losses, which do not identify an individual, can have numbers as small as one.

The meanings of the disclosure flags on the website are:

• -2  No employers operate in this category during this quarter
• -1  Required historical or future wage record data are not available
•  0  No employment in this age, sex category
•  1  The value is not significantly affected by the disclosure protections
•  5  This value has been suppressed because it does not meet Census Bureau publication standards
•  9  The value has been significantly distorted to protect confidentiality

WHY THE CENSUS BUREAU PRODUCES THE QWI STATISTICS

The Census Bureau and the state partners are committed to protecting the integrity of your information and producing the highest quality statistics. We accomplish this by ensuring that the LED program is consistent with the Census Bureau's legal authority and mission; that the methodologies used are the best alternatives; and by the demonstrated benefits of the LED program.

The state partners and the Census Bureau both benefit from the LED program. The state partners fulfill their mandate of providing high quality regional labor market information and the Census Bureau improves the economic and demographic survey estimates and intercensal population estimates. Specifically, the LED program supports Census Bureau research on improving the quality, use, and analysis of its census, survey and estimation-based data products.

Estimates of the employed population by demographic, geographic, and industrial detail directly allow the Census Bureau to benefit existing agency-wide programs. In particular, estimates of workers in each county and industry, in conjunction with statistical information about employers, will provide long-needed and critical but previously unavailable information for critical programs such as the demographic survey estimates and the intercensal population estimates program. Census Bureau programs will be enhanced byy new information on turnover, job creation, and job destruction, by age and sex, and information on the employment of individuals in each county.