All Employees
CES employment is an estimate of the number of nonfarm, payroll jobs in the U.S. economy. Employment is the total number of persons on establishment payrolls employed full- or part-time who received pay (whether they worked or not). Temporary and intermittent employees are included, as are any employees who are on paid sick leave, on paid holiday, or who work during only part of the specified pay period. 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. Government employment covers only civilian employees; it excludes uniformed members of the armed services.
Average Hourly Earnings
CES average hourly earnings are a measure of gross payrolls divided by total hours paid during the reference week of the CES survey. Earnings do not represent employers total compensation costs because they exclude items such as employee benefits, irregular bonuses and commissions, retroactive payments, and the employer's share of payroll taxes.
Average Weekly Earnings
CES average weekly earnings are a measure of gross payrolls divided by the number of employees during the reference week of the CES survey. Earnings do not represent employers total compensation costs because they exclude items such as employee benefits, irregular bonuses and commissions, retroactive payments, and the employer's share of payroll taxes.
Average Weekly Hours
Number of hours worked divided by the number of employees that worked during the reference week of the CES survey.
Over-the-Year Growth Rate
The over-the-year job growth rate equals the change in employment level between the current month and the same month one year ago, divided by the employment level one year ago (for example, if the number of employees increases from 100 to 110 over the course of the year, this will result in a 10 percent growth rate).
Industry
An industry consists of a group of establishments primarily engaged in producing or handling the same product or group of products or in rendering the same services.
Metropolitan Areas
A collection of counties associated with at least one urbanized area that has a population of at least 50,000. The Metropolitan Statistical Area comprises the central county or counties plus adjacent outlying counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the central county or counties as measured through commuting patterns.
Inflation
The rate of change in the prices of all goods and services purchased.
Real Dollars
Real Dollars are dollar values that have been adjusted to account for changes in prices of consumer goods and services.
Recession
A significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.