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Current Employment Statistics - CES (National)

The Current Employment Statistics (CES) program produces detailed industry estimates of nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings of workers on payrolls. CES National Estimates produces data for the nation, and CES State and Metro Area produces estimates for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and about 450 metropolitan areas and divisions.

Each month, CES surveys approximately 145,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 697,000 individual worksites.

Notices

  • The Current Employment Statistics program discovered processing errors in national estimates for seasonally adjusted all employees in professional and technical services, professional and business services, private service-providing, service-providing, total private, and total nonfarm. Read More »
  • The impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the Employment Situation for April 2020 Read More »
  • BLS modified the Current Employment Statistics net birth/death model in order to reflect changes in the relationship between business births and deaths due to COVID-19. Read More »

Charts

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Next Release

  • The Employment Situation for May 2020 is scheduled to be released on June 5, 2020, at 8:30 A.M. Eastern Time.
  • Real Earnings for May 2020 is scheduled to be released on June 10, 2020, at 8:30 A.M. Eastern Time.
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News Releases

Nonfarm payroll employment falls 20.5 million in April; unemployment rate rises to 14.7%

05/08/2020

Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent. The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employment fell sharply in all major industry sectors, with heavy job losses in leisure and hospitality.
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Real average hourly earnings increase 5.6% over the month in April

05/12/2020

Real average hourly earnings increased 5.6 percent over the month in April, seasonally adjusted. Average hourly earnings increased 4.7 percent and CPI-U decreased 0.8 percent. Real average weekly earnings increased 5.8 percent over the month.
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Publications

The Economics Daily

The Economics Daily article image

Real hourly earnings up 7.5 percent for year ending April 2020, reflecting loss of lower-paying jobs

Real average hourly earnings for all employees on nonfarm payrolls increased 7.5 percent from April 2019 to April 2020. The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.6 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 6.9-percent increase in real average weekly earnings over this period. The increase in real average hourly and weekly earnings largely reflects the substantial job loss in April among lower-paid workers. read more »

Monthly Labor Review

Monthly Labor Review article image

Employment expansion continued in 2019, but growth slowed in several industries

Nonfarm employment growth continued but at a slower pace. read more »

Beyond the Numbers

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The 2020 census and CES employment

This Beyond the Numbers article describes how census workers affect CES employment estimates. Typically, a mass movement of workers onto—and then off of—the Census Bureau payroll occurs around the turn of every decade. read more »

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Latest Numbers

RSS

Change in Total Nonfarm Payroll Employment: -20,537,000(c,p) in Apr 2020 Historical Data

Change in Total Private Average Hourly Earnings for All Employees: +$1.34(p) in Apr 2020 Historical Data

Change in Total Private Average Weekly Hours for All Employees: +0.1(p) in Apr 2020 Historical Data

Percent change in Total Private Aggregate Weekly Hours for All Employees: -15.0%(c,p) in Apr 2020 Historical Data

Change in Manufacturing Average Weekly Hours for All Employees: -2.1(p) in Apr 2020 Historical Data

Change in Manufacturing Average Weekly Overtime for All Employees: -0.9(p) in Apr 2020 Historical Data

Change in Total Private Real Average Hourly Earnings for All Employees: +$0.62(p) in Apr 2020 Historical Data

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