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Currently, the CES sample includes about 121,000 businesses and government agencies representing approximately 631,000 individual worksites drawn from a sampling frame of Unemployment Insurance tax accounts. The active CES sample includes approximately one-fourth of all nonfarm payroll workers. The sample-based estimates are adjusted each month by a statistical model designed to reduce a primary source of non-sampling error which is the inability of the sample to capture, on a timely basis, employment growth generated by new business formation.
There is an unavoidable lag between an establishment opening for business and its appearance on the sample frame making it available for sampling. Because new firm births generate a portion of employment growth each month, non-sampling methods must be used to estimate this growth.
Earlier research indicated that while both the business birth and death portions of total employment are generally significant, the net contribution is relatively small and stable. To account for this net birth-death portion of total employment, BLS uses an estimation procedure with two components:
Effective with the release of the January 2025 Employment Situation in February 2025, BLS modified the model-based component of birth-death by incorporating current sample information to inform the forecasts. This modification was only applied from April to October of 2024, known as the post-benchmark period. November 2024, December 2024, and January 2025, as well as future monthly estimates, use birth-death components calculated without this modification.
More information about this adjustment and its impact on the CES estimates is available in question 9 of the CES Birth-Death Model Frequently Asked Questions.
The net birth-death model components are unique to each month and exhibit a seasonal pattern that can result in negative adjustments in some months. These models do not attempt to correct for any other potential error sources in the CES estimates, such as sampling error or design limitations. Note that the net birth-death forecasts are not seasonally adjusted, and are applied to the not seasonally adjusted monthly employment estimates to derive the final CES employment estimates.
The table below shows the net birth-death model adjustment used in the published CES estimates since the establishment of the most recent benchmark level for March 2024.
CES Industry Code | Supersector | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr(1) | May(1) | Jun(1) | Jul(1) | Aug(1) | Sep(1) | Oct(1) | Nov | Dec |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10-000000 |
Mining and logging |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||
20-000000 |
Construction |
48 | 31 | 15 | 11 | 7 | -1 | 25 | -10 | -15 | |||
30-000000 |
Manufacturing |
6 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | |||
40-000000 |
Trade, transportation, and utilities |
19 | 15 | 0 | 22 | 13 | -4 | 53 | 12 | 7 | |||
41-420000 |
Wholesale trade |
3 | -1 | -6 | 5 | 1 | -7 | 14 | 1 | 1 | |||
42-000000 |
Retail trade |
12 | 13 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 3 | 23 | 2 | 0 | |||
43-000000 |
Transportation and warehousing |
4 | 3 | -1 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 9 | 6 | |||
44-220000 |
Utilities |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||
50-000000 |
Information |
10 | 5 | -1 | 6 | 3 | -4 | 11 | 4 | 2 | |||
55-000000 |
Financial activities |
7 | 6 | -4 | 11 | 2 | -9 | 32 | 2 | 8 | |||
60-000000 |
Professional and business services |
132 | 31 | -39 | 76 | 10 | -37 | 117 | 7 | -26 | |||
65-000000 |
Private education and health services |
51 | 9 | -27 | 49 | 11 | -22 | 75 | 12 | -16 | |||
70-000000 |
Leisure and hospitality |
89 | 84 | 72 | 64 | 22 | -47 | 13 | -18 | -3 | |||
80-000000 |
Other services |
22 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 1 | -6 | 17 | 1 | -5 | |||
00-000000 |
Total nonfarm |
384 | 189 | 26 | 249 | 70 | -129 | 349 | 12 | -46 |
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total nonfarm over-the-month change |
826 | 818 | 466 | -951 | 299 | 457 | 825 | 530 | 41 |
CES Industry Code | Supersector | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10-000000 |
Mining and logging |
-1 | 0 | ||||||||||
20-000000 |
Construction |
-39 | 10 | ||||||||||
30-000000 |
Manufacturing |
-8 | 4 | ||||||||||
40-000000 |
Trade, transportation, and utilities |
-25 | 14 | ||||||||||
41-420000 |
Wholesale trade |
-12 | 3 | ||||||||||
42-000000 |
Retail trade |
-7 | 9 | ||||||||||
43-000000 |
Transportation and warehousing |
-6 | 2 | ||||||||||
44-220000 |
Utilities |
0 | 0 | ||||||||||
50-000000 |
Information |
-8 | 3 | ||||||||||
55-000000 |
Financial activities |
-27 | 6 | ||||||||||
60-000000 |
Professional and business services |
-26 | 29 | ||||||||||
65-000000 |
Private education and health services |
40 | 16 | ||||||||||
70-000000 |
Leisure and hospitality |
-10 | 45 | ||||||||||
80-000000 |
Other services |
-1 | 9 | ||||||||||
00-000000 |
Total nonfarm |
-105 | 136 |
Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total nonfarm over-the-month change |
-2,831 (p) | 891(p) | ||||||||||
Footnotes |
Additional information on the CES birth-death model is available in the CES Handbook of Methods under Business birth and deaths as well as on the birth-death frequently asked questions webpage.
Historical birth-death forecasts are available on the Historical Net Birth-Death Forecasts webpage.
An overview of the CES birth-death model, including a detailed description of the original methodology is available in a paper called Impact of business births and deaths in the payroll survey.
Last Modified Date: March 7, 2025