Americans’ Financial Health Through the Eyes of the U.S Bureau of Economic Analysis
Camille Kohler
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) mission is to “promote a better understanding of the U.S. economy by providing the most timely, relevant, and accurate economic accounts data in an objective and cost-effective manner”. Users of the AKFIN and PacFIN databases can now access these rich data sources, compiled by BEA economists, to analyze income and employment statistics to include wage, salary, employment, and compensation by year and county. Four series are updated annually.
Personal Income Summarized
A summary of income received by people from wages, salaries, dividends, and such aggregated by year and county to include:
- Population
- Per capita personal income
- Personal income
Personal Income by Major Component and Industry
Income received by people from wages, salaries, dividends, and such reported by year, county, and industry to include a hierarchical breakdown of:
- Total wages, salaries, and employer contributions
- Earnings and proprietor’s income for farm, non-farm, and private non-farm
- Private, non-farm earnings by industry like wholesale, retail, and services
- Government and government enterprise earnings for local, state, and federal civilian
Total Full-time and Part-time Employment by Industry
Employment statistics reported by year, county, and industry to include a hierarchical breakdown of:
- Total employment
- Employment by component like proprietors, farm, and non-farm
- Private, non-farm employment by industry like forestry, fishing, and related
- Government and government enterprise employment for local, state, and federal civilian
Compensation of Employees by Industry
Compensation statistics reported by year, county, and industry to include a hierarchical breakdown of:
- Total compensation with breakdown by wages and salaries, supplements, and employer contributions
- Compensation by component like proprietors, farm, and non-farm
- Private, non-farm compensation by industry like forestry, fishing, and related
- Government and government enterprise compensation for local, state, and federal civilian
The PacFIN program downloads these sources via the BEA Application Programming Interface (API) and executes a series of processes that stage, consolidate, and standardize the data. It’s delivered through a series of views in both the AKFIN and PacFIN databases that combine like tables to provide a time series for 1969 through 2018 (the latest data available through the API). Throughout this time, the industries have shifted somewhat so PacFIN also provides a value-added field that standardizes these shifting industry variables across the varying versions of the API tables.
In addition to the database views, a series of APEX reports was recently deployed to the PacFIN APEX reporting system to support online filter and download of the BEA data to .csv or Excel. The following are available to authorized PacFIN users under the Economic and Social Sciences header:
- ESS507 – BEA Personal Income
- ESS508 – BEA Compensation
- ESS509 – BEA Income Summary
- ESS510 – BEA Employment
The BEA reports are currently under development for the AKFIN APEX reporting system as well and are expected to be available by May 2021.
For more information about the BEA data and the source API, check out www.bea.gov. To gain access to the PSMFC APEX systems, contact AKFIN or PacFIN staff.