Skip to content
Manufacturing Compass

How we will handle data

These are the rules every figure on this site will follow. They are published before any data so you can judge the approach as well as the numbers.

Data status

First dataset live: manufacturing employment, establishments, and wages by state (BLS QCEW, 2022–2025). Other planned sources are not yet integrated.

Explore state data

01Principles

Five rules for every number

  1. 01

    Published statistics are shown as released

    Figures such as employment, total wages, establishment counts, and location quotients will be presented exactly as the agency published them, with the program, table, and reference period cited.

  2. 02

    Our calculations are labeled and explained

    Derived figures such as average annual pay, average establishment size, growth rates, and ratios like value added per employee will be marked as calculated, with the formula shown. Each calculation uses inputs from a single source and period, so we never mix measures that were collected differently.

  3. 03

    Withheld values stay withheld

    Agencies suppress some values to protect the confidentiality of individual businesses, especially for small areas or very specific industries. These will appear as "Not disclosed" and are never shown as zero or estimated by us. As a result, detailed rows may not add up to published totals.

  4. 04

    Reference periods are always visible

    Official data is released with a lag, from several months to several years depending on the program. Each figure will state the period it describes so older data is never presented as current.

  5. 05

    We don't offer what public data can't support

    Public statistics describe industry totals and averages, not individual companies. We won't publish firm-level performance benchmarks (such as OEE, scrap rates, on-time delivery, or profit percentiles) or rankings that imply company-level distributions.

02Sources

Programs we intend to use

Descriptions summarize each public program. QCEW is integrated and powers the State data pages; the others are planned, and their coverage will be confirmed as each one is integrated.

  • QCEWIntegrated

    Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages

    U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

    Measures
    Establishments, employment, total and average wages, location quotients
    Geography
    National, state, metro, county
    Frequency
    Quarterly

  • CBPPlanned

    County Business Patterns

    U.S. Census Bureau

    Measures
    Establishments by employment-size class, employment, payroll
    Geography
    National, state, county, metro
    Frequency
    Annual

  • ECPlanned

    Economic Census: Manufacturing

    U.S. Census Bureau

    Measures
    Shipments, value added, cost of materials, payroll, capital expenditures
    Geography
    National; state for many industries
    Frequency
    Every five years (most recent: 2022)

  • OEWSPlanned

    Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

    U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

    Measures
    Employment and wage percentiles by occupation and industry
    Geography
    National, state, metro
    Frequency
    Annual

03Classification

How industries are identified

Industries are identified using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the standard U.S. government codes for industries. Manufacturing covers NAICS 31–33. More digits mean a more specific industry, from broad subsectors to individual product categories.

Because these codes are revised periodically, each dataset's NAICS version will be noted alongside its figures.