Bureau of Labor Statistics weighs in with its quarterly jobs and wages report

The weekly initial unemployment claims report is high-frequency data, the kind prized by some stock traders who buy or sell based on whether claims are rising or falling.

The monthly employment report is a little less frequent but more comprehensive and has even more influence on market direction on the first Friday of each month.

Last Tuesday, my favorite employment report was released, and I dare say no one noticed. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) report drills down to the county level on employment and average weekly wage data.

Unlike the monthly jobs report, which is compiled using two surveys, the QCEW counts noses and weighs wallets, drawing on unemployment-insurance records filed by employers with state officials. But this is low-frequency stuff. The latest report covers the second quarter, ended June 2012.

So no one was giving Yakima, Wash., its due for recording an 8.2 percent increase in employment between June 2011 and June 2012, the largest increase of any county nationwide.

With employment of 110,500, Yakima is quite small compared with the county employment bases of Philadelphia and its suburbs. Yakima is no Philadelphia, where 629,441 worked in June 2012, nor Montgomery County - home to the second-largest concentration of employment locally - and its 471,913 employed.

But bigger employment centers don't necessarily lead to big increases in jobs year over year. Employment in the eight-county Philadelphia region grew just 0.5 percent between June 2011 and June 2012. Nationally, the growth rate was 1.0 percent.

The area county that reported the largest employment growth year-over-year was Montgomery, up 1.5 percent. The great thing about QCEW data is it can show what industries are hot or not in a county. For Montgomery County, the areas of strength were leisure and hospitality, in which employment rose 5.2 percent or 1,867 jobs, and professional and business services, up 5.0 percent, or 4,635 jobs.

In fact, private employers in Montgomery County added more to their payrolls (7,720) than those in the city of Philadelphia (which is also a county) where 4,730 jobs were added. Total employment dipped in Philadelphia by 903 jobs from June 2011 because government payrolls were trimmed by 5,633.

The BLS ranks 329 counties by percent change in employment and average weekly wage. Philadelphia was a dismal No. 291 for employment, but No. 17 for wages, with a 4.1 percent increase to $1,070.

Nationally, Washington, Ore., was No. 1 with average weekly wage rising 8.5 percent to $1,122. Dead last was Williamson, Texas, where the weekly wage of $860 had declined by 17 percent.