Key month-to-month wage estimates are produced by the BLS by means of the Institution Survey, which is a part of the Present Employment Statistics (CES) program. The survey collects responses from roughly 119,000 companies and authorities companies throughout roughly 622,000 particular person workplaces.
These numbers are from a pattern fairly than the full variety of jobs and are due to this fact topic to statistical estimation and correction. The closest factor to complete employment statistics is the Quarterly Survey of Employment and Wages (QCEW), which compiles administrative information from unemployment insurance coverage claims and covers about 97% of U.S. employment. Because of this, the QCEW serves as a benchmark in opposition to which non-farm payrolls are periodically revised.
Every year, BLS benchmarks CES knowledge in opposition to QCEW. This course of compares the earlier March wage stage to the QCEW estimate and spreads the distinction evenly over the earlier 12 months, fairly than making use of it unexpectedly (a linear “wedge” adjustment). In consequence, the extent of nonfarm payrolls matches the March QCEW knowledge for a given base 12 months.
In recent times, revisions to those benchmarks have been comparatively giant and persistently destructive. Prior to now three years alone, changes have decreased the beforehand reported variety of salaried workers by a complete of 1.75 million folks.
