A job is any position in which a worker provides labor in exchange for monetary compensation. This includes those who work as employees for businesses (a.k.a. “wage and salary” employees) and proprietors who work for themselves.

Lightcast reports employment as annual averages. The exception is the Extended Proprietors Class of Worker (Class 4), which counts proprietors that existed at any time during a given year, because those data are based on tax returns. Employment averages represent jobs, not workers, since one individual may hold multiple jobs.

Due to limitations of source data, both full- and part-time jobs are included and counted equally, i.e. job counts are not adjusted to full-time equivalents. Geographically, payroll jobs are always reported by the place of work rather than the worker’s place of residence. Conversely, self-employed and extended proprietors are always reported by their place of residence. Unpaid family workers and volunteers are excluded from all Lightcast data.

Sources:

US: Lightcast data based primarily on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

CA: Lightcast data based primarily on the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours (SEPH), Canadian Business Patterns (CBP), Labour Force Survey (LFS), and the Census.