Quaterly Census of Employment and Wages QCEW Workforce Solutions

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QCEW Workforce Analysis Solutions
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From fourth quarter 2024 to fourth quarter 2025, San Mateo, CA, had the largest county percentage increase in average weekly wages at 11.1 percent. Buncombe, NC, had the largest county over-the-year percentage increase in employment in December 2025 at 3.7 percent.

The QCEW data are released quarterly. The County Employment and Wages release for first quarter 2026 is scheduled to be released on Friday, August 28, 2026, at 10:00 am ET.

Using the QCEW Workforce Solutions
The start-up view of the QCEW Workforce Analysis program is shown below. The user selects a county in left panel and the profile is shown in the grid at right.

Web Sessions
The state of development of the QCEW Workforce Analysis is presented at each web session conducted Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Related Sections
• QCEW Interactive Table
• County Business Patterns data by county, ZIP code & Congressional District
• NAICS Codes .. NAICS Codes lists

About QCEW
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, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry. QCEW is a comprehensive statistical program administered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that provides a near-census count of employment and wages across the United States. Key details about the QCEW program include:

What it measures: It publishes a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers. It includes monthly employment data and quarterly wage data.
Scope: The data covers more than 95% of U.S. jobs, encompassing workers covered by state unemployment insurance (UI) laws and federal workers covered by the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program.
Granularity: It provides these statistics at the county, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), state, and national levels. The data is also highly detailed by industry, using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
Significance: Because it is essentially a census rather than a sample survey, QCEW data is considered highly accurate and serves as a vital benchmark for other economic indicators and labor market information.

Limitations
Subject matter suppression so that identity and characteristics or large firms in a county are not revealed.
County is the smallest geography tabulated
Data are released only in CSV structure

Patterns of QCEW
This graphic shows 4th quarter 2025 QCEW average weekly wage data for the finanicial sector for the U.S. by state.

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ProximityOne develops geographic-demographic-economic data and analytical tools and helps organizations knit together and use diverse data in a decision-making and analytical framework. We develop custom demographic/economic estimates and projections, develop geographic and geocoded address files, and assist with impact and geospatial analyses. Wide-ranging organizations use our tools (software, data, methodologies) to analyze their own data integrated with other data. Contact ProximityOne (888-364-7656) with questions about data covered in this section or to discuss custom estimates, projections or analyses for your areas of interest.