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Preliminary benchmark revision to establishment survey data
Bureau of Labor Statistics · 2026-08-28
Current Employment Statistics Preliminary Benchmark (National) Summary - 2026 A01 Results Skip to Content An official website of the United States government Here is how you know United States Department of Labor The .gov means it's official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site. The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. 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The preliminary benchmark revision for total private employment was -178,000 (-0.1 percent). The annual benchmark revisions over the last 10 years have an absolute average of 0.2 percent of total nonfarm employment. In accordance with usual practice, the final benchmark revision will be issued in February 2027 with the publication of the January 2027 Employment Situation news release. Each year, CES employment estimates are benchmarked to comprehensive counts of employment from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). These counts are derived primarily from state unemployment insurance (UI) tax records that nearly all employers are required to file with state workforce agencies. The preliminary benchmark revision reflects the difference between two independently derived employment counts, each subject to their own sources of error. It serves as a preliminary measure of the total error in CES employment estimates from March 2025 to March 2026. The preliminary benchmark revisions in table 1 are calculated only for March 2026 for the major industry sectors. As is typically the case, many of the individual industry series show larger percentage revisions than the total nonfarm series, primarily because statistical sampling error is greater at more detailed levels than at an aggregated level. Official establishment survey estimates are not updated based on this preliminary benchmark revision. The final benchmark revision will be incorporated into official estimates with the publication of the January 2027 Employment Situation news release in February 2027. ___________ The final benchmark revision is scheduled to be published in February 2027 with the January 2027 Employment Situation news release. Table 1. National Current Employment Statistics March 2026 Preliminary Benchmark Revisions by Major Industry Sector Current Employment Statistics Preliminary Benchmark (National) Technical Note HTML version of the entire news release The PDF version of the news release Table of Contents Last Modified Date: August 28, 2026 Error processing SSI file