What is Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages?
This BLS program summarizes jobs and wages reported by employers. You can compare places, industries, public employers, private employers, and dates.
- Full name
- Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
- Published by
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Edition in EduInsights
- 2025
- Current availability
- Used in the current EduInsights data release.
Why it matters
Why we use Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
This source helps us see where industries provide jobs, how employment changes, and what employers pay.
Jobs and work locations
Employment is the number of jobs employers reported. A work location is not the same as a company.
What employers paid
You can see total wages and average weekly pay for the industry and place.
Whether the local industry grew or shrank
Quarterly and yearly figures show how the industry's local job count changed.
Good to know
What to keep in mind
- Industry tells you what the employer does
- A hospital belongs to health care, but it employs nurses, accountants, cooks, and many other workers.
- Keep public and private employers separate
- BLS keeps federal, state, local, and private employers separate. Compare the same kind of employer.
On its own
Questions this source can answer by itself
These questions need no facts from another source.
- Which industries employ the most people in a region?
- How have regional industry jobs changed?
- What are average wages in an industry and place?
With other sources
Questions this source helps answer
We use another source only when it describes the same college, field, career, place, or time.
- Does a region's industry base support related career demand?
- How do local industry changes compare with state job projections?
Where it stops
What this source cannot tell you
- Industries describe employers, not the jobs people perform.
- The source does not track graduates or named college programs.
- Some small or sensitive figures are not published.
Use this source in a real question.
Ask about a college, field, career, place, or change over time.
