VT Census Case Studies : Bureau of Labor Statistics - Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)

Created by ziemer, last modified by steph19 on 07 Nov 2015

Brief Overall Description of the Dataset:

Area/county, industry, annual/quarterly average establishment count, annual/quarterly average employment, annual/quarterly total wages, annual average weekly wage, annual/quarterly average pay, and employment and total wage location.

Link: http://www.bls.gov/cew/ 

Date Inventory Completed: 6/4/15

Screening

  • Is the data collected opinion-based?
  • Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
  • Is there data available for 2013?
  • For Education: Is the data collected at least the school level?
  • Can we access the data by August 15th?
  • Can the data be linked to other education/workforce datasets (e.g., K-12, higher education, workforce)?

Purpose

  • What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor is the principal Federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy. Its mission is to collect, analyze, and disseminate essential economic information.”

  • Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?

“Quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering 98 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry.”

  • Who else uses the data?

On-site and some offsite government and academic researchers

  • Who do they sell the data to?

N/A


Method

  • What is the data collection method? 

Companies report to the BLS.

  • What is the type of data collected? 

Survey

  • If designed, who created the questions?

BLS

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)? 

US companies


Description

  • What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?

Workforce

  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?

 1990-2014

  • Is data collected and available periodically?

Data collected quarterly along with corresponding annual calculations

  • How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided? 

Between 5 and 6 months after the end of the quarter


Selectivity (conversely, the representativeness)

  • What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents (consider inclusion/exclusion criteria)?

98% of U.S. jobs


Accessibility

  • How is the data accessed?

Available for XLS download on website

  • Is it open data?

Yes

  • Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?

No

  • Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

None.

Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? NO

Explanation: Not available on the individual worker level.