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Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, County Business Patterns. Updated annually.
http://www.census.gov/epcd/cbp/view/cbpview.html
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
