Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 2004

• Preface
• Introduction

 This publication is being presented in downloadable Adobe PDF format for easy off-line reading and printing. Individual tables for 2004 are accessible through the above links. The entire bulletin can also be downloaded in one PDF (1,381K).

2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, and 1997 data are also available in PDF format:

Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 2003 (PDF 1,240K)

Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 2002 (PDF 1,427K)

Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 2001 (PDF 999K)

Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 2000 (PDF 994K)

Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 1999 (PDF 994K)

Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 1998 (PDF 765K)

Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 1997 (PDF 966K)

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Preface

Annual data on the labor force, employment, and unemployment in States and substate areas are available from two major sources: the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program. The CPS is a sample survey of about 60,000 households nationwide conducted for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the Census Bureau. The LAUS program is a Federal-State cooperative endeavor in which State workforce agencies prepare estimates using concepts, definitions, and estimation procedures prescribed by BLS.

This bulletin presents 2004 annual averages from the CPS for census regions and divisions, the 50 States and the District of Columbia, and 50 large metropolitan areas and 17 central cities. Data are provided on the employed and unemployed by selected demographic and economic characteristics.

Tables 1 through 13 present 2004 annual average labor force estimates for census regions and divisions. Similar information for all States and the District of Columbia appears in tables 14 through 26. All of these data reflect Census 2000-based population controls. The LAUS program no longer uses the total CPS estimates for States and the District of Columbia as the official annual average labor force statistics, because of a change in its modeling procedures that was implemented in March 2005.

Tables 27 through 32 display 2004 annual average rates, ratios, and percent distributions from the CPS for 50 large metropolitan areas and 17 central cities. Levels for the various labor force categories are not presented because independent census-based population controls are not available for geographic areas below the State level. The CPS metropolitan area and city estimates differ from the official estimates produced by the individual States through the LAUS program. CPS estimates are provided herein because they are a current source of information on demographic and economic characteristics for these areas. Geographic definitions for the metropolitan areas in this publication continue to reflect those issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on June 30, 1993. (See appendix C.)

Official 2004 annual average LAUS estimates for metropolitan areas, however, reflect the Census 2000-based geographic designations that were first issued by the OMB on June 6, 2003. These LAUS estimates appeared (initially) in the May 2005 issue of Employment and Earnings and are available (as revised) through the BLS Web site.

The data in this bulletin reflect revisions to the standards for classification of Federal data by race and ethnicity that were issued by OMB on October 30, 1997. Estimates for the white, black or African American, and Asian race groups are based on the persons who reported only one of those race groups. Persons who reported another race group or two or more races are not included in any of these categories, but are included in the totals. Persons whose ethnicity was identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race and, therefore, were classified by ethnicity as well as by race.

Tables displaying occupation and industry data reflect the coding systems used for those data in Census 2000.

This bulletin was prepared in the BLS Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics by the Division of Local Area Unemployment Statistics in collaboration with the Division of Data Development and Publications. Editorial assistance was provided by the Office of Publications and Special Studies.

Information in this bulletin is available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Federal Relay Service: 1-800-877-8339. This material is in the public domain and, with appropriate credit, may be reproduced without permission.

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Introduction

The Current Population Survey (CPS) is the regular monthly survey of about 60,000 households from which the national unemployment rate is derived. (See appendix A for concepts and definitions used in the CPS and appendix B for a description of the estimation procedures.)

The method for determining which annual average estimates of the labor force—by demographic characteristics (age, sex, race, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity) and economic characteristics of the employed and unemployed—to publish in this bulletin is explained in appendix B. Table B-1 lists the minimum bases required for publication for various geographic areas.

Estimates for census regions and divisions are shown in section I, data for States are shown in section II, and limited data for metropolitan areas and cities are shown in section III. Estimates of levels are not provided in section III, because population controls needed to make estimates of levels comparable with those in the other sections of this publication are not available.

Because the estimates are based on a survey rather than on a complete census of the population, they are subject to sampling error. Consequently, error ranges have been calculated in the form of 90-percent confidence intervals and displayed for the unemployment rates in the first table of sections I, II, and III. In addition, appendix B provides tables from which the sampling error ranges can be obtained for the data in other tables in sections I and II. Separate error tables are not provided for each population group (such as total, white, black or African American, Asian, and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity). Instead, one table is used for all population groups for a given labor force characteristic, because differences in sampling errors are usually minimal.

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