Last updated: May 21, 2026
To size a US industry from public data, join the two federal datasets that count business activity by NAICS industry and geography: the Census County Business Patterns and the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. LiveDataLink does that in one call. market_size_estimator takes an industry and a geography and returns the establishment count, employment, and a wage-based market-size anchor, with the evidence from each source.
Pass a free-text industry (it maps to a NAICS code) or an explicit naics code, plus an optional state or metro. Omit the geography for a national estimate.
{
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"name": "market_size_estimator",
"arguments": { "industry": "restaurants", "state": "TX" }
}
}For a precise industry, pass the NAICS code directly. For example, NAICS 5112 is software publishers and 722 is food services.
{
"method": "tools/call",
"params": {
"name": "market_size_estimator",
"arguments": { "naics": "5112" }
}
}The headline figure is the total annual wages and payroll paid in that industry and area, which both sources report directly. That is a concrete, wage-based anchor on economic activity, and it is a lower bound. It is not total revenue or receipts, which run some industry-specific multiple of payroll and are not asserted here. Reading it as a payroll base rather than a revenue TAM keeps your estimate honest.
Census County Business Patterns and BLS QCEW count business activity independently, so each corroborates the other. QCEW is keyless and counts unemployment-insurance-covered private employers. Census CBP adds establishments, employment, and payroll but needs a Census API key, since the Census data API rejects keyless requests. When both return an establishment count, the tool reports how far apart they are, which is expected because CBP excludes most government and self-employed workers while QCEW counts covered employers. A source that fails is noted, not fatal, so you still get an estimate from whichever leg responded.
Use it to compare industries, size a market before entering it, or sanity-check a top-down number against real establishment and payroll counts. It is informational public-data synthesis, not a guarantee, so treat the wage base as a floor and layer your own revenue multiple on top when you need a receipts figure. See the full set of one-call decision tools at /decisions and connection steps at /connect.
No. It is the total annual wages and payroll paid in the industry and area, a concrete lower bound, not total revenue or receipts. Apply an industry-specific multiple if you need a revenue estimate.
The BLS QCEW leg is keyless and is the core signal. The Census County Business Patterns leg needs a Census API key, because the Census data API rejects keyless requests. If the Census leg is unavailable it is noted, and the QCEW leg still returns an estimate.
Pass a 5-digit CBSA metro code. Note that the metro figure comes from the Census leg, which needs a key. Labor-market breadth from QCEW is state and national.
Last updated: May 21, 2026 · LiveDataLink home