Definitions:
An establishment is a single physical location at which business
is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. It is
not necessarily identical with a company or enterprise, which may consist of
one establishment or more. All activities carried on at a location generally
are grouped together and classified on the basis of the major reported activity,
and all data for the establishment are included in that classification. Establishment
counts represent the number of locations with paid employees any time during
the year. (A separate data set, Nonemployer Statistics, will provide the number
of establishments without paid employees, mostly self-employed individuals.)
Paid employment consists of full- and part-time employees,
including salaried officers and executives of corporations, who are on the payroll
in the pay period including March 12. Included are employees on paid sick leave,
holidays, and vacations; not included are proprietors and partners of unincorporated
businesses.
Payroll includes all forms of compensation, such as salaries,
wages, reported tips, commissions, bonuses, vacation allowances, sick-leave
pay, employee contributions to qualified pension plans, and the value of taxable
fringe benefits. For corporations, it includes amounts paid to officers and
executives; for unincorporated businesses, it does not include profit or other
compensation of proprietors or partners. Payroll is reported before deductions
for Social Security, income tax, insurance, union dues, etc. First-quarter payroll
consists of payroll during the January-to-March quarter.
Scope and Methodology:
Figures for private nonfarm establishments are published in County Business
Patterns (CBP), an annual report series. Basic data items are extracted from
the Standard Statistical Establishment List, a file of all known single and
multiestablishment companies maintained and updated by the Bureau of the Census
from various Census Bureau programs, such as the 5-year Economic Census, the
annual Company Organization Survey, the Annual Survey of Manufactures, and Current
Business Surveys, as well as from administrative records of the Internal Revenue
Service and the Social Security Administration.
These data exclude governmental establishments except for wholesale liquor
establishments (NAICS 4228), retail liquor stores (NAICS 44531), Federally-chartered
savings institutions (NAICS 522120), Federally-chartered credit unions (NAICS
522130), and hospitals (NAICS 622).
The sum of all counties may be less than state totals, because address information
for some establishments was not sufficient to assign them to a specific county.
More information:
Private Nonfarm Business Establishments, Employment, and Payroll