U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Economic Working Paper | Some Facts about Concentrated Labor Markets in the United States

Excerpt:  “In this paper, we use the microdata of BLS’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, merged with the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) to calculate the extent of employer concentration, explicit oligopsony, and employment by very large employers for each occupation in each local area of the United States—for the private sector only and for all employment. We compare our measures of concentration with others found in the rapidly expanding literature on this topic. We examine patterns and trends in concentration by occupation, area type, and industry, and map out the associations between concentration and employment in very large employers and between employment concentration and wages.”