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State and Metro Area Employment, Hours, & Earnings
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2024 Preliminary Benchmark Revisions to Current Establishment Survey Data for states and select metropolitan areas
Each year, CES employment estimates are benchmarked to comprehensive counts of employment from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). These counts are derived primarily from state unemployment insurance (UI) tax records that nearly all employers are required to file with state workforce agencies.
While most firms are required to pay UI tax for their employees, there are some types of employees that are exempt from UI tax law but are still within scope for the CES. Because these employees are not included in the QCEW, CES uses several other sources to generate counts of this noncovered employment. More information on noncovered employment is available in the CES Handbook of Methods at https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/ces/calculation.htm#noncovered-employment.
Preliminary benchmark revisions are presented for March 2024 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Noncovered employment levels for the upcoming benchmark are not available at the time of the release of the preliminary benchmark revisions. Therefore, the preliminary benchmark revision is calculated by adding the previous year’s March noncovered employment level to the current year’s March QCEW employment and subtracting the current year’s March CES estimate of employment:
Preliminary benchmark revision = (March 2023 noncovered employment + March 2024 QCEW employment) – March 2024 CES employment estimate
Final benchmark revisions will be issued in March 2025 with the publication of the January 2025 State Employment and Unemployment Summary news release. The final benchmark will reflect revisions to all not seasonally adjusted data from April 2023 to December 2024, all seasonally adjusted data from January 2020 to December 2024, and select series subject to historical revisions before April 2023. Also, with the publication of January 2025 data, CES updated its area delineations from those based on the 2010 Census to those based on the 2020 Census. For more information on the CES benchmarking process for states and metropolitan areas, see https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/benchmark.htm.
Preliminary benchmark revisions for March 2024 for all 50 states and the District are available in Table 1.
NOTE: With the release of final benchmark revisions in March 2025, CES updated its area delineations to those based on the 2020 Census, available at https://www.bls.gov/bls/omb-bulletin-23-01-revised-delineations-of-metropolitan-statistical-areas.pdf. Preliminary benchmark revisions for areas with a Census 2020 population of 1 million or more will be made available with the release of preliminary 2025 benchmark data.
Historical data (2017-2023) for preliminary and final benchmark revisions are available for download in the historical data link below. Preliminary benchmark revisions to CES national data series are available at https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesprelbmk.htm.
| State | March 2024 Preliminary Benchmark Revision | |
|---|---|---|
| Level (in thousands) | Percent | |
|
Alabama |
-4.9 | -0.2 |
|
Alaska |
-4.8 | -1.5 |
|
Arizona |
39.8 | 1.2 |
|
Arkansas |
-3.3 | -0.2 |
|
California |
7.7 | (1) |
|
Colorado |
-72.7 | -2.5 |
|
Connecticut |
-1.7 | -0.1 |
|
Delaware |
2.4 | 0.5 |
|
District of Columbia |
2.5 | 0.3 |
|
Florida |
6.4 | 0.1 |
|
Georgia |
6.8 | 0.1 |
|
Hawaii |
-1.0 | -0.2 |
|
Idaho |
-15.2 | -1.8 |
|
Illinois |
15.5 | 0.3 |
|
Indiana |
-26.7 | -0.8 |
|
Iowa |
-9.6 | -0.6 |
|
Kansas |
-13.0 | -0.9 |
|
Kentucky |
10.0 | 0.5 |
|
Louisiana |
17.1 | 0.9 |
|
Maine |
1.3 | 0.2 |
|
Maryland |
32.7 | 1.2 |
|
Massachusetts |
-6.0 | -0.2 |
|
Michigan |
-1.0 | (1) |
|
Minnesota |
-35.1 | -1.2 |
|
Mississippi |
-6.0 | -0.5 |
|
Missouri |
-54.2 | -1.8 |
|
Montana |
-4.9 | -0.9 |
|
Nebraska |
-7.3 | -0.7 |
|
Nevada |
-14.0 | -0.9 |
|
New Hampshire |
-2.6 | -0.4 |
|
New Jersey |
-18.5 | -0.4 |
|
New Mexico |
-2.6 | -0.3 |
|
New York |
23.8 | 0.2 |
|
North Carolina |
13.5 | 0.3 |
|
North Dakota |
2.6 | 0.6 |
|
Ohio |
13.0 | 0.2 |
|
Oklahoma |
-22.8 | -1.3 |
|
Oregon |
7.3 | 0.4 |
|
Pennsylvania |
-1.6 | (1) |
|
Rhode Island |
-4.3 | -0.9 |
|
South Carolina |
-21.9 | -0.9 |
|
South Dakota |
-4.7 | -1.0 |
|
Tennessee |
39.8 | 1.2 |
|
Texas |
-30.1 | -0.2 |
|
Utah |
-5.3 | -0.3 |
|
Vermont |
-0.4 | -0.1 |
|
Virginia |
-9.8 | -0.2 |
|
Washington |
-7.3 | -0.2 |
|
West Virginia |
0.1 | (1) |
|
Wisconsin |
-1.4 | (1) |
|
Wyoming |
-0.3 | -0.1 |
|
Footnotes: (1) +/- 0.05 percent |
||
Historical Data
preliminary-benchmark-histories.xlsx (Excel)
Last Modified Date: March 17, 2025