Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics

Quarterly Workforce Indicators

The Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) are a set of economic indicators—including employment, job creation, wages, and worker turnover—that can be queried by different levels of geography—state, county, metro/micropolitan area, and workforce investment area—as well as by detailed industry, sex, and age of workers. Users can query the data directly by using the QWI Online application.

Cornell University hosts a computational infrastructure in support of the creation and use of synthetic data. It is known as the VirtualRDC and is supported by National Science Foundation grants. It is not affiliated with the Census Bureau.

Public-use Quarterly Workforce Indicators are available for download from the VirtualRDC. The VirtualRDC provides access to large computer servers running Linux. Available statistical software includes SAS, Stata, and OpenOffice Calc, and lower-level programming languages such as Fortran and R. Those who wish to use other software should make arrangements to download data directly from the VirtualRDC to their local computing environment. Users of VirtualRDC are assumed to be knowledgeable statistical practitioners. An account is required in order to access the site.

LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics

LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) used by OnTheMap are available for download. Version 6 of LODES was enumerated by 2010 census blocks. Previous versions of LODES were enumerated with 2000 census blocks.

Data files are state-based and organized into three types: Origin-Destination (OD), Residence Area Characteristics (RAC), and Workplace Area Characteristics (WAC), all at census block geographic detail. Data is available for most states for the years 2002–2010.

Restricted-Use Microdata

In addition to the public-use Quarterly Workforce Indicators data and LODES data, LEHD microdata are available for research use in approved projects. Researchers interested in using restricted-use LEHD data must submit a proposal to conduct research at a secure Census Research Data Center (RDC). LEHD data available in the RDCs includes job-level quarterly earnings history data, person-level demographic data, establishment-level firm characteristics, and establishment-level Quarterly Workforce Indicators. Detailed information about restricted-use LEHD data, including available states and years, is on the CES LEHD Data page.