The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program publishes a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering more than 95 percent of U.S. jobs. These data are available at the state, metropolitan area, workforce development area, and county level by industry. Figures are published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in collaboration with the Labor Market Information Division of the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (DEW).
QCEW produces a comprehensive tabulation of the number of establishments, monthly employment and quarterly wages for workers covered by State unemployment insurance (UI) laws and Federal workers covered by the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program. At the State level and below, the QCEW program publishes establishment, employment, and wage data down to the 6-digit North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industry level if disclosure restrictions are met. Establishment counts and wage data are available quarterly and annually. Employment data are available monthly and annually. In addition to richly detailed employment and wage data, the QCEW program produces data on establishments, employment, and wages stratified by size of establishment for the first quarter of each year. Data are published within five months after the end of the reference quarter.
Data from the QCEW program serve as an important input to many BLS programs. The QCEW data are used as the benchmark source for employment by the Current Employment Statistics program and the Occupational Employment Statistics program. The UI administrative records collected under the QCEW program serve as a sampling frame for BLS establishment surveys.
For more information about QCEW, visit the BLS website at https://www.bls.gov/cew/.