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,
provides 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.
The number of establishments with 1 to 19 employees is as of March 12. 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.
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