Employment Situation

May 14, 2012
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.1 percent. Employment increased in professional and business services, retail trade, and health care, but declined in transportation and warehousing. 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 -- a package of charts and analysis featuring the latest industry employment numbers (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 2012.

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 employees 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
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 »

• Notice of Series Changes with the Update to 2012 North American Industry Classification System on February 3, 2012
• 2012 NAICS Code From the Bureau of Census
• Documentation on SIC to NAICS 2002 conversion
• Monthly Employment Situation Report: Quick Guide to Methods and Measurement Issues
• BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 2: Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Establishment Survey (HTML) (PDF)
• Technical notes to establishment survey data
  • 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
• 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)
• Articles by CES staff
  • NEW Payroll employment in 2011: a visual essay (PDF 665KB)
  • Employment loss and the 2007–09 recession: an overview (PDF 471KB)
  • Employment in health care: a crutch for the ailing economy during the 2007–09 recession (PDF 625KB)
  • Mining employment trends of 2007–09: a question of prices (PDF 586KB)
  • Construction employment peaks before the recession and falls sharply throughout it(PDF 477KB)
  • Manufacturing employment hard hit during the 2007–09 recession (PDF 544KB)
  • Professional and business services: employment trends in the 2007–09 (PDF 1MB)
  • Employment in financial activities: double billed by housing and financial crises (PDF 3MB)
  • Deep drop in retail trade employment during the 2007–09 recession (PDF 1MB)
  • Employment in leisure and hospitality departs from historical trends during 2007–09 recession (PDF 1MB)
  • The decline in work hours during the 2007–09 recession (PDF 607K)
  • Payroll employment turns the corner in 2010 (PDF 753K)
  • The 2010 Census: the impact of counting the Nation (PDF 3,320K)
  • New all-employee hours and earnings from the CES survey (PDF)

People Are Asking...

1. Where can I find CES data on the automotive industry?
2. How can I find out about the methods and measurement issues associated with the monthly Employment Situation report?
3. Where can I find out about revisions to payroll employment numbers?
4. What is NAICS?
5. How do reservists impact CES?
6. What is the establishment payroll survey?
7. What is the CES definition of employment?
8. Can I get occupational data from the CES survey?
9. Are part time workers counted in your survey?
10. Do hours and earnings statistics include overtime?
11. What kind of hours and earnings data are available?
12. 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 »

• IMPORTANT Data for book stores and news dealers (42-451200) were suppressed on Friday, April 27, 2012 due to errors resulting from the conversion to NAICS 2012. Suppressed data are limited to women employees, production employees, hours and earnings for production employees, and derivatives of these series. Estimates for all employees are not affected.
• Employment Situation data were revised on Friday, March 2, 2012, to reflect corrections to series that were updated during the conversion to NAICS 2012, (http://www.bls.gov/ces/cesnaics12.htm#Scope_AE). Corrected data are limited to not seasonally adjusted all employee series and related derivative series for March 2010 and 2010 annual averages. These data were originally published on February 3, 2012 with the annual benchmark release.
• Real Earnings data were revised at 3:00 P.M. EST on Monday, February 27, 2012, to reflect a correction to the annual averages of average hourly earnings for all employees and annual averages of average weekly earnings for all employees. Only 2010 annual average data were corrected. These data were originally published on February 3, 2012 with the annual benchmark release.
• NEW Experimental Size Class Employment, Hours, and Earnings Series from the Current Employment Statistics Survey
• IMPORTANT CES Benchmark Announcement
• Effective with the release of January 2011 data on February 4, 2011, the establishment survey began estimating net business birth/death adjustment factors on a quarterly basis. (HTML) (PDF)
• Effects of the Gulf Oil Spill on CES Employment Estimates
• Employment from the BLS household and payroll surveys: summary of recent trends (PDF)
• Notice of Series Changes with the Update to 2012 North American Industry Classification System on February 3, 2012
• 2012 NAICS CODES FROM THE BUREAU OF CENSUS
• Documentation on SIC to NAICS 2002 conversion

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