Bureau of Labor Statistics Data on

Job Creation and Job Loss

Pat GetzSeptember 24, 2009

APDU Conference

Industry Employment Statistics Series

Current Employment Statistics (CES)

Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)

Business Employment Dynamics (BED)

Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS)

CES Program

CES, also known as the payroll survey, is the earliest data available; one month lag from reference month

Provides estimates of net employment change, average hours, and nominal and real earnings, by industry

National, States, and Metropolitan areas

Top line series date back to 1939

CES Derivation and Use

Based on a monthly nationwide sample of about 380,000 business establishments

Benchmarked annually to administrative records from the UI tax system through the BLS QCEW program

Major analytical use: timely measure of net employment change

120,000

122,500

125,000

127,500

130,000

132,500

135,000

137,500

140,000

120,000

122,500

125,000

127,500

130,000

132,500

135,000

137,500

140,000

1999-2009

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics survey, September 4, 2009.

Notes: Shaded areas represent recessions as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). NBER has not yet determined an endpoint for the recession that began in Dec. 2007. Most recent 2 months of data are preliminary.

B-1. Employment in total nonfarm

Seasonally adjusted, in thousands

August 2009

Level: 131,223

Change: -216

-6.0

-5.0

-4.0

-3.0

-2.0

-1.0

0.0

1.0

-6.0

-5.0

-4.0

-3.0

-2.0

-1.0

0.0

1.0

-6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Months

July 1990

March 2001

December 2007

from beginning of recession*, seasonally adjusted

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics survey, September 4, 2009.*Note: Business cycle peak as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Most recent two months are preliminary.

B-2. Percentage change in total nonfarm employment,

-72

-144 -122-160

-137-161

-128-175

-321

-380

-597

-681

-741

-681-652

-519

-303

-463

-276

-216

-900

-750

-600

-450

-300

-150

0

B-3. Employment in total nonfarm

Seasonally adjusted, in thousands

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics survey, September 4, 2009.Note: Most recent 2 months of data are preliminary.

Over-the-month change, 2008-09

-8

-65

-63

-17

-10

-1

0

-10

-28

-22

52

-21

-5

-18

-80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80

Mining and logging

Construction

Manufacturing

Wholesale trade

Retail trade

Transportation and warehousing

Utilities

Information

Financial activities

Professional and business services

Education and health services

Leisure and hospitality

Other services

Government

Over-the-month change, August 2009

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics survey, September 4, 2009.

Note: Data are preliminary.

B-5. Employment in total nonfarm

Seasonally adjusted, in thousands

-216Total nonfarm:

QCEW Program

Quarterly release of monthly employment series, and quarterly wage totals

Published 7 months after the end of the quarter (March data released in October)

National, State, counties by detailed industry

Data more extensive than CES, but released 6 months later

QCEW Derivation and Use

Unemployment Insurance (UI) tax records

Universe count, not a sample, allowing for publication of extensive industry and geographic detail

Cells with small number of establishments are suppressed for confidentiality reasons

Major analytical use – trends at detailed industry/geographic levels

BED Series

Quarterly series on gross job gains andgross job losses, derived from the QCEW

Gross job gains are composed of: Expansions and Openings

Gross job losses are composed of: Contractions and Closings

BED Series

Recent enhancements now allow further breakouts:

Openings divides into business births and seasonal re-openings

Closings divides into business deaths and seasonal closings

BED Series

National series by industry, size class

States series for Total Private (no industry or size breakouts)

Quarterly series with an 8-month lag (Q1/March data published in November)

Series begin in 1992

BED Analytical Uses

Disaggregation of net employment changes into component pieces at the business establishment level

Analysis of trends from each component

JOLTS

Job Openings, Hires, Total Separations

Separations divided into Quits, Layoffs, and Other separations

National and Regional data Published with a 2-month lag from

the reference period (e.g. July data published 2nd week in September)

Series begin in 2000

JOLTS Derivation

Based on a monthly sample of about 10,000 business establishments

Benchmarked monthly to CES employment

JOLTS analytical uses

Disaggregation of net employment change into hires and separations

Job openings series complements unemployment rate (labor demand vs labor supply)

Quits series measure workers willingness and ability to change jobs

JOLTS Quits and Layoffs & Discharges Levels, Total Nonfarm, seasonally adjusted

23

JOLTS Hires and Total Separations and CES Employment, Total Nonfarm, seasonally

adjusted

24

The Unemployment Rate and the Job Openings Rate, Total Nonfarm, seasonally

adjusted

25

For Further Information

BLS published series and technical information is online at:

bls.gov

My contact information:getz.pat@bls.gov