The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program, also known as QCEW, produces a comprehensive tabulation of employment and wage information for workers covered by state of Idaho unemployment insurance laws and federal workers covered by the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees program. QCEW covers approximately 98 percent of total employment in the United States and over 90 percent of employment in Idaho.
Data from the QCEW series include number of firms, monthly employment, average monthly employment per quarter, total quarterly wages, average weekly wage by industry using the North American Industry Classification System up to 6 digits, ownership as private, federal government, state government or local government, and location by county, region and state.
QCEW data provides the most comprehensive count of monthly employment and quarterly wage data, particularly at the local level. Detailed industry and geographical data is published both quarterly and annually. QCEW summaries are not necessarily comparable from one year to another because the data are technically not a time series between the years. Most corrections to industry and county codes are made during the first quarter of each year. This timing leads to shifts in data every January. Nevertheless, the microdata from the QCEW program are the source of the Business Employment Dynamics data. But unlike QCEW, Business Employment Dynamics data are a time series.
Being the most comprehensive data set available, QCEW is widely used as a sample framework and benchmark for other established Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys. QCEW data are used in calculating Gross Domestic Product statistics and are a primary source for detailed county data by industry. Detailed geo-coded maps of employment and industry most commonly used to locate businesses in federal disaster areas rely on QCEW data.