The establishment payroll survey, known as the Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey, is administered to a monthly sample of nearly 400,000 business establishments nationwide. The primary statistics derived from the survey are monthly estimates of employment, hours, and earnings for the nation, states, and major metropolitan areas. Preliminary national estimates for a given reference month are typically published on the first Friday of the following month, in conjunction with data derived from a separate survey of households, the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is the source of statistics on the activities of the labor force, including unemployment and the nation's unemployment rate.

What types of data can one get from the CES survey?

The establishment survey produces nonfarm payroll estimates for: all employees, women workers, production workers, average weekly hours, average hourly earnings (constant dollar and current dollar), average weekly earnings, average overtime, index of aggregate hours and payrolls, and diffusion indexes. All data is available not seasonally adjusted, and some data is available seasonally adjusted.

What is the CES definition of employment?

Employment, except for national federal government estimates, is the total number of persons on establishment payrolls employed full or part time who received pay for any part of the pay period which includes the 12th day of the month. Temporary and intermittent employees are included, as are any workers who are on paid sick leave, paid holiday, or who work during only part of the specified pay period. A striking worker who only works a small portion of the survey period and is paid would be included as employed under the CES definitions. Persons on the payroll of more than one establishment are counted in each establishment. Data exclude proprietors, self-employed, unpaid family or volunteer workers, farm workers, and domestic workers. Persons on layoff the entire pay period, on leave without pay, on strike for the entire period, or who have not yet reported for work are not counted as employed. Government employment covers only civilian workers.

Federal government employment represents the number of persons who were employed during the last full pay period of the month. This data is provided by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Federal government statistics are for civilian U.S. workers only. Overseas installations are excluded from the CES survey, as are all military personnel. In addition, the following agencies are excluded: the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

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