Covered employment (QCEW)
Average number of jobs covered by unemployment insurance during the year, all industries, private and government, from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Counted where the job is located, from the reports employers file each quarter; monthly employment counts the jobs in the pay period that includes the 12th.
Counts jobs, not people: someone with two jobs counts twice. Covers about 95 percent of US wage and salary jobs. Excludes the self-employed, most agricultural workers on small farms, the armed forces, elected officials in most states, most railroad employees, some domestic workers and most student workers at schools. A count of employer reports, not a survey estimate like oews_employment.
Key facts
- Covered employment (QCEW) in the United States was 155,732,363 jobs in 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- California had the highest covered employment (QCEW) of 51 states in 2025, at 18,210,243 jobs, and Wyoming the lowest, at 282,252 jobs. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Published for 3,195 places, with figures from 2001 to 2025.
Rankings
- US states
- US counties
- Counties in Texas
- Counties in Georgia
- Counties in Virginia
- Counties in Kentucky
- Counties in Missouri
- Counties in Kansas
- Counties in Illinois
- Counties in North Carolina
- Counties in Iowa
- Counties in Tennessee
US states by covered employment (QCEW), 2025
Places with data
Countries
Regions and states
- California
- Texas
- Florida
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- Illinois
- Ohio
- Georgia
- North Carolina
- Michigan
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
Provinces and counties
- Los Angeles County
- Cook County
- Harris County
- Maricopa County
- San Diego County
- Orange County
- Miami-Dade County
- Dallas County
- Kings County
- Riverside County
- Baltimore County
- Arapahoe County
- Yuma County
- Adams County
- Yavapai County
- St. Joseph County
Use this data in your AI agent
Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:
Which places have the highest covered employment (QCEW)? Use official data and cite it.
rank_places {"indicator":"covered_employment","level":"region","within":"United States"}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=covered_employment&level=region&within=United%20States