BEA Statistics Update

On January 27, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released for the first time county estimates of compensation by industry. Compensation, the sum of wage and salary disbursements and supplements to wages and salaries, is a key statistic in the personal income account. The compensation by industry estimates for 1998-2003 are presented in a new table-CA06, Compensation of Employees by Industry-that can be accessed interactively at www.bea.gov/bea/regional/reis/.

The county estimates by industry for 2003 are available 13 months after the end of the calendar year. This release marks an acceleration of 4 months in the availability of detailed industry statistics for local areas. Previously, the earliest release of local area estimates by industry was 17 months after the end of the year, when earnings by industry (the sum of compensation and proprietors' income) was presented. This acceleration of the release of a key component of substate personal income meets the goal of improving the timeliness of county-level personal income and its components, which is outlined in BEA's Strategic Plan.

The estimates of compensation by industry cover 114 industries and aggregates for 3,111 counties. In addition to the county estimates, BEA also released compensation by industry for metropolitan areas, micropolitan areas, combined statistical areas, and BEA economic areas.

Tables presenting the comprehensive measure of personal income for local areas-including CA05, Personal Income by Major Source and Earnings by Industry-will be released April 27, 2005.

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