Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics

The U.S. Department of Labor Conducts, Bureau of Labor Statistics, conducts a census-like survey of employers in various industries to track trends and verify the nation's job count: the Current Employment Statistics program. If you receive a form such as BLS 790B, call the number on the form to contact the agent handling your account for more information.

Form BLS 790B is a form to aid employer’s participation in BLS’s Current Employment Statistics program (http://www.bls.gov/ces). The CES is like a job census, designed to count employees per industry, and track trends in employment. The form is authorized by statute. 29 U.S.C. 2. According to their website:

Each month the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program surveys about 140,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 410,000 individual worksites, in order to provide detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls.

Filling out the form is not mandatory, nor is participation in the program for California businesses:

Please note this report is mandatory in North Carolina, … Oregon, … Washington, … and in South Carolina. * * * You are not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

If an employer does not complete the form, the agent assigned to their case will contact them to solicit the requested information.

However, participation in the program is beneficial to the Bureau’s mission, and responses will not generally be identifiable by employer, or used of any other purpose:

We request your cooperation to make the results of this survey comprehensive, accurate, and timely. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, its employees, agents, and partner statistical agencies, will use the information you provide for statistical purposes only and will hold the information in confidence to the full extent permitted by law. In [with] Federal laws, your responses will not be disclosed in identifiable form without your informed consent.

The estimate of time to participate in the program is about 11 minutes per month:

We estimate that it will take an average of 11 minutes to complete this form each month including time to review instructions, search existing data sources, gather and maintain the necessary data, and complete and review this information.

Generally, the maximum amount of time any employer will have to participate is five years. Many employers will be thanked and asked to discontinue filing the forms in advance of that time, depending on various factors. Questions about length of participation are best addressed to the agent in charge of the case after the first collection of data is made.