Wednesday, October 21, 2009

State by State Unemployment: Nowhere to Hide

The BLS details:

Between August and September 2009, 15 states and the District of Columbia experienced statistically significant changes in employment, all of which were decreases. The largest statistically significant job losses occurred in New York (-81,700), Texas (-44,700), California (-39,300), Wisconsin (-21,700), and Michigan (-21,500). The smallest statistically significant decreases in employment occurred in Hawaii (-4,200), Nebraska (-6,300), and Arkansas (-7,700).

Over the year, 46 states experienced statistically significant changes in employment, all of which were decreases. The largest statistically significant job losses occurred in California (-732,700), Florida (-360,400), Michigan (-308,800), Illinois (-306,900), Texas (-303,700), Ohio (-258,100), New York (-256,100), and Georgia (-245,400). The smallest statistically significant decreases in employment occurred in South Dakota (-7,900) and Montana (-8,400).



Source: BLS

3 comments:

  1. I'd go back to the drawing board on this one. You have it titled "Month over Month Change in State Unemployment", but you have all of these showing drops in unemployment, when unemployment actually increased.

    It's also not clear why you use a bar for one and a line for the other, and I have to look up at the title and at each axis to figure out what the bar and line geoms mean. They should probably both be bar graphs, and if you're going to do a two-axis graph, why not at least color-code the two axes?

    Also, always note whether the change is seasonally adjusted or not.

    Finally, the corresponding text talks about changes in employment, while the graphics talks about unemployment, and the two are not interchangeable, as you have to consider entry and exit to/from the labor force.

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  2. Thank you sir... may I have another?

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  3. Illinois Unemployment Trends - August 2009

    Illinois Unemployment Trends in Heat Map form:
    here is a map of Illinois Unemployment in August 2009 (BLS data)
    http://www.localetrends.com/st/il_illinois_unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=curr_ue

    versus Illinois Unemployment Levels 1 year ago
    http://www.localetrends.com/st/il_illinois_unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=m12_ue

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