Data product
U.S. Economic Benchmarks by County and Sector
ABS + QCEW Integrated Dataset (2022-2023, v1.0)
County-level economic benchmarks by NAICS 2-digit sector, standardized for fast market comparisons and peer analysis.
Why this dataset exists
County-level economic benchmarks are time-consuming to build from raw ABS and QCEW. This dataset removes the join pain by aligning year, county FIPS, and NAICS2 sectors in a single export. It is designed for quick validation and comparison, without smoothing or imputation. You can trust the raw signal and move directly to analysis.
What you get
- County x NAICS2 x year coverage for 2022 and 2023
- ABS and QCEW facts in a single aligned table
- More than 25 derived metrics for benchmarking
- State x NAICS2 aggregates for immediate comparisons
- Within-state rankings for fast peer context
- Markdown documentation openable in any text editor
Key advantages vs raw ABS and QCEW
- Integrated and standardized at grain: year x county FIPS x NAICS 2-digit sector
- No imputation, smoothing, or backfilled values
- Derived metrics ready for dashboards and reports
- Consistent labeling and sector descriptions
- State benchmarks included for context without extra joins
Data scope and coverage
- Years: 2022 and 2023
- Geography: all U.S. counties by 5-digit FIPS
- Sectors: NAICS 2-digit sectors, including combined codes
- Grain: year x county FIPS x NAICS2 sector
- Metrics: ABS firms, employment, payroll, receipts, plus QCEW employment and wages
- Derived metrics: more than 25 comparison-ready fields
Intended audience
Best for
- Economic development and strategy teams
- Site selection and market analysis
- Policy research and regional planning
- Analytics teams building dashboards
Not intended for
- Firm-level or establishment-level analysis
- Time series beyond 2022-2023
- Users needing imputed or smoothed values
License and update policy
The license terms are available on Gumroad and included in the download zip. This release is a v1.0 snapshot for 2022-2023; future updates will be published as new versions on Gumroad.