Wyoming Establishments,
Employment, Total Payroll, & Average Weekly Wage by Size for All Ownerships, Private & All Government
By: Nancy Brennan, Senior Economist
The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), formerly known as the ES-202 program and/or Covered Employment and Wages program, compiles data from employer quarterly payroll tax reports subject to Wyoming Unemployment Insurance (UI) laws and from federal agencies subject to the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program. These private employer quarterly payroll tax reports provide data on the number of people employed by month, quarterly total and taxable wages and contributions paid to employees each quarter, and are the start of the QCEW process. Similar tax reports of monthly employment and quarterly wages are submitted by the Federal Government, by State governments, and by local governments. Covered employment reported by these tax reports provide a virtual census of approximately 97% of jobs on nonfarm payrolls. Jobs not covered by UI or jobs that are exempt are not included in QCEW tabulations. Exemptions include: some agricultural employees, self-employed farmers, self-employed workers, some domestic workers, unpaid family workers, workers covered by the railroad unemployment insurance system, elected officials, students or inmate workers, church employees, certain types of nonprofit employers. QCEW data are published six to nine months after the end of the reference quarter. Quarterly QCEW processing comprises scanning, editing, cleaning-up, correcting, and estimating of the submitted data. Even though the time lag exists, QCEW provides employment and wage data at the county and industry level that are not available elsewhere.
The QCEW maintains information on the
location or place of work and industrial activity of each reported establishment. An
employer can have one or more establishments. An establishment is an economic
unit, such as a mine, store, or farm that produces goods or provides services.
It is typically a single physical location and engaged in predominantly one type
of economic activity. Sometimes, a single physical location includes two or more
distinct and significant economic activities. QCEW collects data at the
establishment level, which is the predominant reporting unit or statistical
entity for reporting employment and wage data. Each establishment of a
multi-establishment firm is tabulated separately into the appropriate location
and industry category if it meets the criteria of being a multi-establishment
and if the business will complete the multiple worksite report each quarter.
Thus, covered data are by establishment or place of work, not necessarily by UI account.
Each establishment,
employer, and place of work is assigned a six-digit industrial classification
code according to their production processes.
This categorization is the North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS). These
establishments are then further grouped into categories known as sectors.
For the first quarter of each year, QCEW data are tabulated by establishment size class at the national level. The size of each establishment is categorized by the March employment level. Data by establishment are tabulated into size categories ranging from worksites with a few employees to those with a thousand or more employees. Since this size determination is only done nationally by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the first quarter of each year, Wyoming determined that the third month in each quarter would be the basis for quarterly size tabulations: June for second quarter, September for third quarter, and December for fourth quarter. One could foresee some movement within the size classes quarterly due to seasonality, business cycles, economic events, administrative events, etc.
QCEW monthly employment data correspond to the number of covered workers who worked during or received pay for the pay period that included the 12th of the month. Employment data represent counts of jobs, not persons. When individuals work more than one job, each is counted separately.
QCEW total wages reported by covered
employers is total compensation paid during the calendar quarter, regardless of
when the services were performed including bonuses, stock options, profit
distributions, cash value of meals and lodgings, and some gratuities. UI
covered payroll represents approximately 92% of all wage and salary
disbursements and 45% of personal income in
Average weekly wage is calculated by dividing quarterly covered total wages by the average of the three monthly employment levels. The result is then divided by 13, the number of weeks in a quarter.
QCEW data are not designed as time series; they show just the sums of establishment records that exist in a location or industry at a distinct time.
Confidentiality of QCEW data distribution is strictly adhered to following the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA) to insure information protection from disclosure and nonstatistical uses.