Related BLS programs | Related articles
Improving estimation and benchmarking of State labor force statistics
Sharon P. Brown
Among the important economic data developed by the
Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS, the Bureau), unemployment estimates for
States and local areas are viewed as key indicators of local economic
conditions. These estimates are produced by State workforce agencies under the
Federal-State cooperative Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS)
program. Currently, monthly estimates of employment, unemployment, and the
unemployment rate are prepared for more than 7,000 areas—regions; divisions;
all States and the District of Columbia; metropolitan areas and areas with small
labor markets; counties; cities with a population of 25,000 or more; and all
cities and towns in New England, regardless of population.1
The LAUS estimates are used by a number of agencies in
the United States to allocate more than $40 billion in Federal funds to States
and areas for a variety of socioeconomic programs. State and local governments
use the estimates for planning and budgetary purposes and as determinants of the
need for local services and programs. With the State labor force estimates
released by the Bureau 5 weeks after the reference week and just 2 weeks after
the national estimates, the LAUS estimates are one of the
timeliest sub-national economic measures issued by the U.S. Government. In
operating the LAUS program, the Bureau is responsible for
concepts and definitions, technical procedures, and review, analysis, and
publication of the estimates. The State agencies are responsible for producing
the estimates and for analyzing and disseminating the data to their own
customers.
As the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics, the Bureau strives to ensure that its programs satisfy a number of criteria: relevance to social and economic issues, timeliness in reflecting today’s rapidly changing economic conditions, accuracy and consistently high statistical quality, and impartiality. With its estimates for January 2005, the LAUS program has completed a redesign that includes the introduction of real-time benchmarking in current estimation, an approach that is on the frontier of benchmarking methods and applications to official statistics. These improvements to LAUS methodology further the BLS mission of providing the best data possible on a timely basis.
This excerpt is from an article published in the May 2005 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.
Read
abstract Download
full article in PDF (48K)
Footnotes
1 Information
on the technical procedures used in the Local Area Unemployment Statistics
program can be obtained from the BLS Handbook of Methods, Bulletin 2490
(Bureau of Labor Statistics, August 1997); on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/lau/.
Labor Force Statistics from the Current
Population Survey
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
Related Monthly Labor Review articles
BLS regional
offices and the Federal-State statistics program.—Dec.
1992.
Developing
statistics to meet society's needs.—Oct.
1989.
Implementing
recommendations to improve labor statistics.—Feb.
1985.
Within Monthly Labor Review Online:
Welcome | Current Issue | Index | Subscribe | Archives
Exit Monthly Labor Review Online:
BLS Home | Publications & Research Papers
