Understanding the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) Linked-Job Identifier (FID)

Kevin L McKinney and Stephen R Tibbets

CES Technical Notes Series from Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau

Abstract: The Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) program at the U.S. Census Bureau primarily uses administrative data to release public use statistics such as the Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). Administrative data from state unemployment insurance (UI) systems provides extensive coverage of quarterly employee job earnings, however the data as received is not directly suited to producing the QWI. Administrative firm identifiers attached to a job frequently change for reasons not associated with a clear economic event, generating spurious worker transitions that severely impact relatively low magnitude statistics such as quarterly accessions and separations. This paper discusses how the LEHD linked-job identifier (FID) is constructed, shows its impact on several LEHD statistics, and illustrates some pitfalls of the current approach.

Keywords: LEHD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07
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