This document provides an overview of how to use various data sources from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to find and tell local stories. It discusses using BLS county and metro area unemployment rates, employment levels, average weekly wages, and business dynamics data to report on economic trends in local communities. The document provides direct links to the BLS data sources and gives examples of how newspapers have used these sources to write about unemployment rates, job growth, and wages in their local areas.

1. Breaking Local Stories
Title SlideData
with Economic
U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics

2. Paul
Overberg
Paul Overberg, a database editor at USA
TODAY, finds news in all kinds of data. He
focuses on who the American people are and
how they live -- their demographics. That
includes income in all of its many forms; the
lack of income, or poverty; and jobs, the
primary source of income for most people.
Through IRE/NICAR, he often helps local
reporters learn about this kind of data. He poverberg@usatoday.com
also has worked as a science and health editor @poverberg
and as a local reporter and business editor.

3. What we’ll cover
Real news stories using BLS data on:
• County employment, unemployment
• Metro labor force, unemployment
• Metro employment
• Metro wage rates
• State business dynamics
Photo by Flick user zesser
• How to find each type of data
• How to turn data → stories!

4. County unemployment
“Fairfax County’s
jobless rate
declined slightly
from October to
November … to
3.6% …” -- Vienna
(VA) Sun Gazette,
Jan. 17, 2013

5. County unemployment
• Start here:
bls.gov/lau/home.htm
• Click on highlighted link:
“LAU tables and maps”
• County data:
bls.gov/lau/laucntycur14.txt
bls.gov/lau/home.htm
• If you have a spreadsheet,
open file and filter on
“Adams County, CO”

6. County unemployment
• If you have a
spreadsheet, open
the file and filter on
“Adams County,
CO”

7. County unemployment
• Ideas: Google
image search for
“county
unemployment map”

8. Video: Excel as BLS dashboard
How to collect regular BLS
data updates without
having to reformat, analyze
and graph it each month

9. Metro unemployment
“The Lubbock-area
unemployment rate fell to 5.8
percent in August from 6.4
percent in July … because of
notable losses in both jobs and
the civilian labor force.” --
Sept. 21, 2012, Lubbock (Texas)
Avalanche-Journal

10. Metro unemployment
• Start here:
bls.gov/lau/home.htm
http://bls.gov/lau/home.htm
• Choose first link in
highlighted section:
“Unemployment rates for
metro areas”

11. Metro unemployment
• Direct links:
Monthly:
bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm
Year-over-year:
bls.gov/web/metro/laummtch.htm

12. Metro employment
“ … the six-county
Chattanooga region added
3,900 jobs in the most recent
12-month period …” -- Dave
Flessner, Feb. 1, 2013,
Chattanooga Times Free-Press

13. Metro employment
Start here: bls.gov/news.release/metro.toc.htm
• Table 1: Labor force, unemployed
• Table 3: Employed
bls.gov/news.release/metro.toc.htm

14. Metro employment
Start here:
bls.gov/news.release/
metro.toc.htm
• Table 1: Labor force,
unemployed
• Table 3: Employed

15. Local wages
“… Miami-Dade
finishes in the
middle of the
pack. ... average
weekly wage grew to
$880 in the third
quarter of 2011, a
3.3 percent gain ... .”
-- Miami Herald,
May 11, 2012

16. Local wages
Start here:
bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm
• Choose second link of
fourth section: “For 375
metropolitan areas …”
bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm
• Choose “K” for
“Kentucky,” then metro
Louisville.

17. Local wages
Use column sorting
to see top-paying
occupations.

18. Video: Location quotient
A powerful tool to
analyze your local
economy

19. Employment dynamics
“… Colorado gained 128,595
private-sector jobs in last
year’s fourth quarter from the
previous quarter and lost
122,675 jobs, for a net gain of
5,920 jobs …” -- Mark
Harden, Aug. 2, 2012, Denver
Business Journal

20. Employment dynamics
Start here:
bls.gov/news.release/cewbd.toc.htm
• Click on link for Table 6
http://bls.gov/news.release/cewbd.toc.htm

21. Employment dynamics

22. Employment dynamics
To explore much deeper: onthemap.ces.census.gov

23. Questions?
Up next: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis