Census Business Patterns - Industry & Employment Data by Location

Extract U.S. Census County Business Patterns (CBP) data: employee counts, establishment counts, and annual payroll — segmented by NAICS industry code and geographic level (national, state, county, or ZIP code).

Data is sourced directly from the U.S. Census Bureau CBP API. A free Census API key is now required for live data; default runs return a clear requires_census_api_key setup item instead of failing.

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What This Actor Does

• Queries the Census 2021 CBP dataset via the official REST API
• Filters by any NAICS 2017 industry code (2-digit sector down to 6-digit subsector)
• Returns results at national, state, county, or ZIP code geographic level
• Outputs structured records ready for analysis, market research, or lead generation

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Use Cases

• Market sizing — How many restaurants (NAICS 72) are in each U.S. state?
• Business density analysis — Which ZIP codes have the highest concentration of healthcare establishments?
• Competitive research — How large is the labor market for a given industry in a target county?
• Economic intelligence — Compare payroll and employment trends across geographies
• Lead generation — Identify high-density industry clusters for outreach campaigns

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Input

Field	Type	Description
naicsCode	string	NAICS 2017 code (e.g. "72" for Accommodation & Food Services). Leave blank for all industries.
geography	select	national, state, county, or zipcode
stateCode	string	Two-digit FIPS state code to narrow county/ZIP results (e.g. "06" for California). Optional.
maxResults	integer	Maximum number of records to return (default: 500)
apiKey	string	Required Census API key for live data. Get a free key at https://api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html.

Common NAICS Codes

Code	Industry
11	Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing
21	Mining, Quarrying, Oil & Gas
23	Construction
31-33	Manufacturing
44-45	Retail Trade
52	Finance and Insurance
53	Real Estate
54	Professional, Scientific & Technical Services
62	Health Care & Social Assistance
72	Accommodation & Food Services

Common State FIPS Codes

Code	State
06	California
48	Texas
36	New York
12	Florida
17	Illinois

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Output

Each record contains:

Field	Description
naicsCode	NAICS 2017 industry code
naicsLabel	Industry name
employees	Total employees (mid-March pay period)
establishments	Number of business establishments
annualPayroll	Annual payroll in thousands of dollars
firstQuarterPayroll	First-quarter payroll in thousands of dollars
stateFips	State FIPS code (state/county queries)
countyFips	County FIPS code (county queries)
zipCode	ZIP code (zipcode queries)

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Example Output

[
  {
    "naicsCode": "72",
    "naicsLabel": "Accommodation and food services",
    "employees": "1812928",
    "establishments": "91942",
    "annualPayroll": "37029834",
    "firstQuarterPayroll": "8543210",
    "stateFips": "06",
    "countyFips": "",
    "zipCode": ""
  }
]

If apiKey is omitted, the actor returns a setup item instead of failing:

[
  {
    "status": "requires_census_api_key",
    "message": "The Census Data API currently redirects unauthenticated requests to a missing-key page. Provide apiKey from api.census.gov/data/key_signup.html to retrieve live County Business Patterns data."
  }
]

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Data Source

U.S. Census Bureau — County Business Patterns (2021)

• Coverage: All U.S. states and territories
• Frequency: Annual (2021 is the most recent CBP release available via this API)
• Official documentation: https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/cbp-nonemp-zbp/cbp-api.html

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Notes

• Suppressed cells (where data is withheld for confidentiality) appear as "0" or "N" in the Census response — this is normal Census disclosure avoidance behavior, not an actor error.
• ZIP code queries can return large result sets. Use stateCode to limit scope, or set maxResults accordingly.
• NAICS codes must match the 2017 revision. Prior-year codes may differ at the subsector level.