The program’s name, Quarterly Census of
Employment and Wages (QCEW), accurately describes this program.
It is a virtual census of employment in the United States,
covering 99.7 percent of wage and salary civilian employment.
This name was adopted in 2003.
The QCEW program is often referred to as the
ES-202 program. A name derived from an obsolete transmittal with
that number that was part of the Employment Security
(Unemployment Insurance) program.
Before changing the name to QCEW, it was known as
the Covered Employment and Wages program, because of the focus
on jobs covered by Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment
Coverage for Federal Employees.
The QCEW program derives its data from quarterly
tax reports submitted to State Employment Security Agencies by
over eight million employers subject to State unemployment
insurance (UI) laws and from Federal agencies subject to the
Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) program.
This includes 99.7 percent of all wage and salary civilian
employment. These reports provide information on the number of
people employed each month and the total wages paid each
quarter. The program obtains information on the location and
industrial activity of each reported establishment, and assigns
location and industrial classification codes accordingly. This
establishment level information is aggregated, by industry
classification, to the county level, and to higher aggregate
levels.
QCEW data are available quarterly and annually.
Quarterly data for selected series are released after complete
processing of the quarter, which is usually six to seven months
after the end of the quarter. Quarterly and annual data for all
series are released approximately nine months after the end of
the year.
For detailed Iowa data, call
(800) 532-1249.
Link to Iowa
Data:
Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages (QCEW) Data
Annual
Refiling Survey
The QCEW program
also conducts an Annual Refiling Survey (ARS) by mail to all
employers to verify and update the North American Industry
Classification System (NAICS), as well as mailing and physical
location addresses. Typically, about one third of the
total number of firms are refiled each year until all firms are
refiled over a three-year period. The annual refiling
cycle generally begins in October and ends in July.
