EARN 101:
How to use JobWatch, SWXX, and other EARN tools
Jessica Schieder
Research Assistant
Economic Policy Institute/ Economic Analysis and Research Network
Thursday, December 15, 2016
JobWatch
- How does State Jobs Day look at EPI?
- Accessing data by state within the workbook
- Best practices
SWXX
- Accessing the workbooks and log-in process
- EARN member pages
- Sample SWXX reports
Additional EARN resources
- Periodic calls and webinars with EPI’s experts
- SWXX microdata
- EARN technical support
State Jobs Day at EPI
- 10:00 am– State unemployment and jobs data is released
- State unemployment
- Regional unemployment
- State jobs data
- ~11:00 am– State and local government jobs data is released
- LAUS search function
- ~12:15 pm– State population numbers released
- 12:00-1:00 pm– Updating rankings, RecessionWatch, and maps
- ~2:00– JobsWatch email sent out to list
Accessing data by state within the workbook
- Tabs are organized as follows:
- Headline
- Jobs deficit
- State and Local jobs deficit
- Rankings
- Recent Trends
- Unemployment Rate
- Job Numbers
- Labor force
- Industry Trends
- LF
- Unemployment rate, and labor force level
- Jobs
- Total nonfarm
- Construction; manufacturing; trade, transportation, and utilities; financial; professional business services; education and health; leisure and hospitality; government (total, state, local, and combined state and local)
- Monthly Population
- Reference Sheet
- Headline
Best practices: State Jobs Day
Application Exercise #1
- In the previously displayed COWS Wisconsin Jobs at a Glance data update, it mentions there were 2,931,300 jobs in Wisconsin in May 2016. Can you locate this number for Wisconsin in your copy of the updated workbook?
- Wisconsin gained 5,500 jobs between over the “last month”, or between April 2016 and May 2016. Find that number in your copy of the workbook.
- Hint: This number has since been revised down to 1,300 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Can you find for your state:
- Total number of jobs created over the past three months?
- Unemployment rate for your state in December 2007 and for October 2016?
- Bonus Question: Why do we frequently use December 2007 as a comparison point?
- How does your state rank based on it’s unemployment rate?
State of Working XX (SWXX): Accessing the data
EARN Member Pages
Data Workbooks:
- Jobs
- Total nonfarm employment
- Employment by industry
- Labor Force
- Unemployment
- Labor force participation
- Part-time employment for economic reasons
- Employment-to-population ratio
- Wages
- Wages by decile
- Wages by gender
- Wages by race and ethnicity
- Immigration
- Foreign-born share of work force
- Count of prime-age working people by immigration status
- Miscellaneous
- Median family income
- Median household income
- Poverty rates
- Health insurance coverage
Best practices: SWXX
Application Exercise #2
- In the previously displayed State of Working Rhode Island, it mentions that median wages for Hispanic workers in Rhode Island were $12.45 in 2014. Can you find this number in the State of Working X files?
- Hint: In the latest data, the number is $12.47 in real 2015 dollars.
- Can you find for your state:
- Median wages for women, 1979–2015, in your state?
- Wage gap between white and black workers in 2015 in your state?
Additional EARN resources
- Periodic calls and webinars with EPI’s experts
- SWXX microdata
- EARN technical support
Thank you!
Economic Policy Institute: epi.org