ACS Data Users Group

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  • 1.  ACS UI data is great, (about a year old), but Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAU) is only 2 months behind (with no details)

    Posted 10-23-2022 11:42 PM

    I appreciated that UI data is in Census data so you can break out by race, age etc. Not apples to apples. However, does it even make any sense to include the most recent top-level data, in my case county? So if I'm listing county ACS data and have UI (total for county for 2021). A note or reference that it's currently x.x% (Sept 22 via LAU). Does anyone do this? Perhaps say it trending up2.3 or down 2.3 vs 2021 per LAU?



  • 2.  RE: ACS UI data is great, (about a year old), but Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAU) is only 2 months behind (with no details)

    Posted 10-24-2022 08:04 AM

    Id use the LAUS or the ACS; not both. Invites confusion as to which is the "right" or "real" estimate. Id have reservation that any single, monthly CPS-based LAUS figure at county level is really any more telling than ACS--for all intents and purposes



  • 3.  RE: ACS UI data is great, (about a year old), but Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAU) is only 2 months behind (with no details)

    Posted 10-24-2022 09:11 AM

    It might help if you could provide some context on how this would be used. In some cases, I could see this being helpful, but in others, it could be really confusing.



  • 4.  RE: ACS UI data is great, (about a year old), but Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAU) is only 2 months behind (with no details)

    Posted 10-24-2022 09:31 AM

    The last two months in the LAU are preliminary data. (Check the footnote column for a "P".) So really it's more like four months behind.



  • 5.  RE: ACS UI data is great, (about a year old), but Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAU) is only 2 months behind (with no details)

    Posted 10-25-2022 06:57 AM

    As someone who runs a state labor market information shop that produces the LAUS data, please don't mix and match with ACS. They have wildly different methodologies, even if they're trying to answer the same basic question.

    FYI, BLS does produce demographic information at the state level annually: https://www.bls.gov/lau/ex14tables.htm



  • 6.  RE: ACS UI data is great, (about a year old), but Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAU) is only 2 months behind (with no details)

    Posted 10-25-2022 05:37 PM

    Hi, all the key websites that show Public Health info (I'm focused on county) mix and match many sources. Not to mention Healthy-People 20202.

    Unfortunately, they all have 1 or 2 key sources that are a few years behind. This really impacts the entire point of trying to put this together. So, I'm trying (just for reference) to get some great resources for the raw data (CDC Wonder, ACS, CDC BRFSS). Also, there are some great websites and or authors that just jump into some great analysis when data is first published, and I'm searching for those as well. Unfortunately, I have to have at least a fair understanding of the data to determine if these analyses are really great or just BS pumped out to earn $40 on some publishing platform.

    Some key Public Health websites.
    County Health Rankings & Roadmaps: County Info
    Rural Health Info: States with county highlights (map)
    City Health Dashboard: LA
    National Association Counties: County Explorer
    PLACES: Local Data for Better Health
    Kids Count: Child Health Insur TX