Labor/Employment Statistics

[Ele'ill]

I'm not restricted but I'm going to post this here anyways.

The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) for the United States shows changes from June 2009 - June 2010. (New stats are out tomorrow August 6th)

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

How accurate is this?

How significant are the changes?

I've heard since I came to Oregon that the state has the highest unemployment rate in the country. Apparently Nevada does? - And Oregon isn't even in the top of that list anymore?


http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/Surv...=LASST41000003

[JazzRemington]

Different organizations have different procedures for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting statistics. I'm not sure of the techniques the US government uses, but I've always used their statistics because they tend to be broader and you can generally get the raw data to verify their information. Plus, they're considered accurate and reliable by researchers. If you have to two different organizations that are reporting relatively the same results, it's safe to say that the results are pretty valid. If not, I'd ask how the data is collected.

[Ele'ill]

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-...04-713738.html


This would only affect (as the article mentions) states with an unemployment rate over 12% which is five states (including Puerto Rico)- according to BLS.

Nevermind- the fucking site makes you subscribe in order to read all of the article-

[Ele'ill]

http://www.kgw.com/news/local/Oregon...-99952339.html


http://www.oregonhomeownerhelp.org/

[Dean]

I'm not restricted but I'm going to post this here anyways.

The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) for the United States shows changes from June 2009 - June 2010. (New stats are out tomorrow August 6th)

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm

How accurate is this?

It depends. Labor statistics leave out notable parts of the population:
-those who have "stopped looking for work"
-those whose labor does not accrue rpofit or utility for a registered company or similar legal organization (i.e. mothers or subsistence farmers)

How significant are the changes?

It's hard to say. Short-term changes and single-point comparisons are never really considered to be exceptionally significant, as I understand it. It's all about trends.