About the BEA Annual Earnings by Industry Estimates

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis produces annual estimates of employment (jobs) and earnings by place of work each year and for all counties in the nation. These estimates are based on covered payroll employment (aka QCEW) and administrative records (such as the IRS). As a result, the BEA estimates include farm and non-farm sole proprietors, thus capturing a significant segment of jobs; when comparing these estimates against other job numbers for your county, you will likely find that this number is higher.

Geographic Coverage

• Unites States
• 50 states
• Indiana regions, metros and counties
• All counties for all 50 states

Frequency

Annual, generally
released by mid-May
of each year

Time Span

• NAICS: 2001 - forward*
• SIC: 1969 - 2000

*Note: BEA discontinued the employment series with the 2012 release.

Revisions

At least three years with each annual release. Period benchmarking results in more years being revised.

Dataset Characteristics

Earnings is the sum of: Wages and Salaries, Other Labor Income, and Proprietors' Income. Components of earnings include:

• Wage and salary disbursements measures the remuneration of employees; it includes the compensation of corporate officers; commissions, tips, and compensation plans, such as 401(k) plans; and receipts in kind, or pay-in-kind, that represent income to the recipient. It reflects the amount of wages and salaries disbursed, but not necessarily earned, during the year.
• Other labor income consists of employer contributions to privately administered pension and profit-sharing plans, private group health and life insurance plans, supplemental unemployment insurance benefit plans, and privately administered workers' compensation insurance; corporate directors' fees, and a miscellaneous component, that of jury and witness fees, the compensation of prison inmates, and marriage fees to justices of the peace.
• Proprietors' income is the current-production income (including the income in kind) of sole proprietorships and partnerships and of tax-exempt cooperatives. It essentially consists of non-farm proprietors' income and farm proprietors' income. Includes the imputed net rental income of the owner-occupants of farm dwellings, but excludes both the imputed rental income of the owner-occupants of non-farm dwellings and the monetary rental income that is received by persons who are not primarily engaged in the real estate business. It also excludes the dividends and the monetary interest that are received by proprietors of non-financial businesses. A sole proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned by a person.

County Coverage

The estimates are prepared for most counties and for the following county equivalents: the District of Columbia, the boroughs and census areas of Alaska, the parishes of Louisiana, and the independent cities of Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia. However, the estimates for the following areas are combined with those for adjacent counties: Kalawao County, Hawaii; the Montana portion of Yellowstone National Park; and the small independent cities of Virginia, generally those with fewer than 100,000 residents.

Disclosure Codes

For confidentialty purposes, some data for earnings is not disclosed for a specific industry: (D) Not shown to avoid disclosure of confidential information, but the estimates for this item are included in the totals. (L) Less than $50,000, but the estimates for this item are included in the totals. (NA) Data not available for this year.

Data Source

The specific source for these data is the REIS cd/rom (Regional Economic Information System), file CA05