Do You Understand Your Local Economy?

The national unemployment rate may make the headline news every month, but many folks are most interested in understanding their own local economy.

BLS has a stat for that (really MANY statistics for that)! In fact, BLS data were highlighted in a webinar focusing on local data sponsored by the Association for Public Data Users, the American Statistical Association, and the Congressional Management Foundation.

Dr. Martin (Marty) Romitti, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness, presented a webinar called “Understanding Your Congressional District’s Economy and Workforce Using Federal Statistical Data.” Though geared to Congressional staff, the information is applicable to anyone interested in knowing more about their local economy.

By using an extended example of the Napa, California, metropolitan area (where we immediately think, “Wine Country!”), Dr. Romitti finds some interesting information that may shatter some of your preconceived notions of that region.

He does this by answering 10 questions — 5 about “our people,” where he uses U.S. Census Bureau data and 5 about “our economy,” where he uses BLS data.

We are going to focus on the BLS portion (run time 31:12)* of the webinar. The five questions Dr. Romitti poses about our economy are:

1. How healthy is my economy now?
2. How many unemployed people live in my area?
3. What are the largest employing industries?
4. Which industries pay most to workers?
5. What are our economic strengths?

Below are some steps and tips if you want to access the same information as Dr. Romitti on www.bls.gov. Note that he uses Internet Explorer; use a different browser and your screen will look different.

Dr. Romitti uses two BLS tools; we have included the path and links to pages as appropriate:

• To answer Questions 1 and 2: Economy at a Glance -> California -> Napa (Dr. Romitti suggests clicking on the maps.)
  • Tips:
  • For context, suggest you compare your area data to your state numbers. Beware: Your state unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, while your area data are not.
  • Also, for context, you may want to look at the data over time, such as the last 10 years. Just remember the “Great Recession” occurred starting in late 2007.
• To answer Questions 3, 4, and 5: BLS Data Tools -> Employment -> Quarterly -> State and County Employment and Wages -> Tables

By following these instructions, you can uncover the same information as Dr. Romitti. We believe Dr. Romitti does a good job of explaining how to answer questions related to local economic data in under an hour!

But wait, there’s more! Let me offer two more resources in your quest for local data:

1. Are you familiar with our Economic Summaries? These summaries present a sampling of economic information for the area covered, such as unemployment, employment, wages, prices, spending, and benefits. For example, take a look at San Francisco. If you are looking for something quick and easy, you might find what you need in one of these summaries.
2. The Economic Summaries are produced by the BLS regional information offices. The BLS regional office staff stand ready to assist you with questions about your local economy.

*The taped webinar starts with a musical interlude and some brief introductions. The real action starts at the following run-time intervals:

Run Time                    Presentation Topic   

6:46                             Introduction by Dr. Romitti

11:30                           About our people (Census Bureau data)

31:12                           About our economy (BLS data) begins

52:36                           Regional Economic Accounts (Bureau of Economic Analysis data)

58:53                           Conclusion

60:00                           End