Looking for employment data? BEA has employment data designed to fill specific needs, complementing well-known job statistics produced by other federal agencies.
We estimate the number of workers that U.S. industries employ in other countries, as well as how many people in the United States work for foreign-owned firms. You can get breakdowns by country and industry, or see the number of people in each U.S. state working for foreign-owned businesses. These statistics, generated exclusively by BEA, are gathered through BEA's surveys and published with our international statistics on direct investment and the activities of multinationals.
We publish U.S. employment-by-industry numbers, plus industry jobs data for states, counties, metro areas, and more. BEA's counts of jobs located in state and local areas are based primarily on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Internal Revenue Service. To account for jobs not captured in those data, BEA also uses additional data sources and makes other adjustments. This aligns our employment statistics with other BEA statistics, which aids in analysis of employees’ compensation and productivity, for example.
You can find additional employment numbers for specific industries in BEA's satellite accounts, which provide in-depth coverage of special topics, such as outdoor recreation or the arts and cultural economy.
BEA employment estimates released annually include:
Employment by Industry
National data tables show the number of full- and part-time wage or salary workers, and the number who are self-employed, by type of industry. The table “Persons Engaged in Production by Industry” adds together full-time equivalent employees and the self-employed. Government is included as an industry.
Found in National Income and Product Account tables Section 6 in BEA's Interactive Data.
Employment by State
A count of jobs by industry in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Found in the Regional Data section of BEA’s Interactive Data.
Employment by County, Metro, and Other Areas
Jobs by industry in U.S. counties, metropolitan areas, micropolitan areas, and other areas.
Found in the Regional Data section of BEA's Interactive Data.
Learn more:
For employment by multinational businesses, see BEA's statistics on foreign direct investment by country and industry, activities of U.S. multinational enterprises, activities of U.S. affiliates of foreign multinationals, and new foreign direct investment in the United States.
For more about satellite accounts that include employment statistics, see the Special Topics learning page.