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• Presentation
  • Major publications
  • Source of data
  • Uses of the data
  • How to access the data
  • Confidentiality
  • Data correction
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Handbook of Methods Current Employment Statistics - State and Metro Area Presentation

Current Employment Statistics - State and Metro Area: Presentation

The Current Employment Statistics-State and Area (CES-SA) data series are published monthly, usually on the 5th Friday after the 12th of each month. The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment release is typically published two Wednesdays later. Beginning with the March release, benchmarked data are included in the data series. The survey provides employment, hours, and earnings estimates based on payroll records of business establishments.

Major publications

CES-SA publications include the State Employment and Unemployment news release, the Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release, the CES-SA annual benchmark article, and supplemental material on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website including sortable tables, supplemental maps, and 3-month moving average and annual average tables.

Source of data

The CES program is a federal–state cooperative program. The CES survey is based on approximately 121,000 businesses and government agencies representing approximately 631,000 worksites throughout the United States.

Uses of the data

CES-SA data on employment, hours, and earnings are among the timeliest indicators of economic trends at the state and area level released each month, and they are used to assess the health of state and local labor markets.

CES-SA data are used in forecasting tax revenue for states and localities, and the data are used in the private sector to determine the employment base of states and areas for bond ratings.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia uses statewide nonfarm employment and manufacturing average weekly hours of production workers from CES-SA as inputs to the state coincident indexes.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses CES-SA series in creating preliminary estimates of personal income by state.

CES-SA data are used as inputs to statistical series produced by other BLS programs.

• The Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program uses CES-SA employment series to model labor force statistics.
• The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) uses CES-SA data as a monthly benchmark of employment for estimating state level job openings, hires, and separations.
• The Labor Productivity and Costs program uses CES-SA employment and hours data in estimating state productivity.

How to access the data

Visit the SAE databases webpage to access data series. By choosing the multi-screen data search option, users can specify the exact data that is needed. Users will also find news releases, tables, and other publications on the website along with text-based files that can be downloaded. In addition, discontinued data sets can be found in the one-screen or multi-screen data search options.

Confidentiality

The data collected for the CES-SA data series comply with the confidentiality requirements enforced by BLS that prohibit the disclosure of identifying information. These data that are collected from the CES survey are used only for statistical purposes. This strict confidentiality policy ensures that the survey sample composition, lists of reporters, and names of respondents will be kept confidential. In addition, the policy assures respondents that published figures will not reveal the identity of any specific respondent and will not allow the data of any specific respondent to be identified.

Once a year, each published series is reviewed to ensure that it meets these confidentiality requirements. If a series fails to meet the standard for confidentiality established by CES-SA, it will be modeled or removed from publication. Currently, no series are suppressed because of failing confidentiality requirements.

Data correction

If an error is discovered in published CES-SA data, it is corrected in the public database and all related products (news release, data tables, etc.). Corrected products will clearly note that a correction was made, typically with a footnote. A record of the error is added to the list of BLS errata and a special notice describing the error is posted on the CES-SA website.