Analysis of ‘BLS Jobs by Industry Category’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/ce915016-6e4a-4598-85c8-6c616a136b50 on 27 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES) program. CES data represents businesses and government agencies, providing detailed industry data on employment on nonfarm payrolls.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Graph and download economic data for All Employees, Skilled Nursing Care Facilities (CES6562310001) from Jan 1990 to Jun 2025 about nursing homes, nursing, health, establishment survey, education, services, employment, and USA.

Analysis of ‘BLS Jobs Data - Change from the Previous Month’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/0b021ff3-2cb3-4a10-83d8-89673850f301 on 26 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

This dataset represents the CHANGE in the number of jobs per industry category and sub-category from the previous month, not the raw counts of actual jobs. The data behind these monthly change values is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES) program. CES data represents businesses and government agencies, providing detailed industry data on employment on nonfarm payrolls.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

About this Dataset

This dataset combines automation probability data with a breakdown of the number of jobs and salary in each occupation by state within the USA. Automation probability was acquired from the work of Carl Benedikt Freyand Michael A. Osborne; State employment data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Note that for simplicity of analysis, all jobs where data was not available or there were less than 10 employees were marked as zero.

How to Cite this Dataset

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the authors.

Salary Data

@misc{u.s. bureau of labor statistics, title={Occupational Employment Statistics}, url={https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm}, journal={U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS}}

Automation Data

@article{frey_osborne_2017, title={The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?}, volume={114}, DOI={10.1016/j.techfore.2016.08.019}, journal={Technological Forecasting and Social Change}, author={Frey, Carl Benedikt and Osborne, Michael A.}, year={2017}, pages={254–280}}

License

License was not specified at the source.

Splash Banner

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash

Graph and download economic data for Multiple Jobholders, Primary Job Full Time, Secondary Job Part Time (LNU02026625) from Jan 1994 to Jun 2025 about multiple jobholders, part-time, full-time, 16 years +, household survey, employment, and USA.

Analysis of ‘Earnings of females and males employees.’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/mpwolke/cusersmarildownloadsearningcsv on 28 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Context

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, in 2013, female full-time workers had median weekly earnings of $706, compared to men's median weekly earnings of $860. Women aged 35 years and older earned 74% to 80% of the earnings of their male counterparts. https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Gender_pay_gap_in_the_United_States

Content

What is the gender pay gap 2019? Study after study has identified a persistent gender pay gap. A PayScale report found that women still make only $0.79 for each dollar men make in 2019. A Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) analysis discovered that in 2018, median weekly earnings for female full-time wage and salary workers was 81% of men's earnings.Jul 11, 2019 https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharziv/2019/07/11/gender-pay-gap-bigger-than-you-thnk/#36ca335f7d8a.

Acknowledgements

Linked through data.gov.au for discoverability and availability. This dataset was originally found on data.gov.au https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/a5776c56-bdde-4643-a3fd-dcc2775d7d7a ***Photo by Samantha Sophia on Unsplash.

Inspiration

Great females scientists: Mileva Maric', Frances "Poppy" Northcut, Hedy Lamarr, Marie Sklodowska Curie and Ada Lovelace. If you don't know them yet, just search on Google.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Graph and download economic data for Employed full time: Wage and salary workers: Computer scientists and systems analysts occupations: 16 years and over (LEU0254477000A) from 2000 to 2010 about analysts, computers, occupation, full-time, salaries, workers, 16 years +, wages, employment, and USA.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR Jobs by Wage Level (EQ1)

FULL MEASURE NAME Distribution of jobs by low-, middle-, and high-wage occupations

LAST UPDATED January 2019

DESCRIPTION Jobs by wage level refers to the distribution of jobs by low-, middle- and high-wage occupations. In the San Francisco Bay Area, low-wage occupations have a median hourly wage of less than 80% of the regional median wage; median wages for middle-wage occupations range from 80% to 120% of the regional median wage, and high-wage occupations have a median hourly wage above 120% of the regional median wage.

DATA SOURCE California Employment Development Department OES (2001-2017) http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/data/oes-employment-and-wages.html

American Community Survey (2001-2017) http://api.census.gov

CONTACT INFORMATION vitalsigns.info@bayareametro.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator) Jobs are determined to be low-, middle-, or high-wage based on the median hourly wage of their occupational classification in the most recent year. Low-wage jobs are those that pay below 80% of the regional median wage. Middle-wage jobs are those that pay between 80% and 120% of the regional median wage. High-wage jobs are those that pay above 120% of the regional median wage. Regional median hourly wages are estimated from the American Community Survey and are published on the Vital Signs Income indicator page. For the national context analysis, occupation wage classifications are unique to each metro area. A low-wage job in New York, for instance, may be a middle-wage job in Miami. For the Bay Area in 2017, the median hourly wage for low-wage occupations was less than $20.86 per hour. For middle-wage jobs, the median ranged from $20.86 to $31.30 per hour; and for high-wage jobs, the median wage was above $31.30 per hour.

Occupational employment and wage information comes from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program. Regional and subregional data is published by the California Employment Development Department. Metro data is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The OES program collects data on wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments to produce employment and wage estimates for some 800 occupations. Data from non-incorporated self-employed persons are not collected, and are not included in these estimates. Wage estimates represent a three-year rolling average.

Due to changes in reporting during the analysis period, subregion data from the EDD OES have been aggregated to produce geographies that can be compared over time. West Bay is San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin counties. North Bay is Sonoma, Solano and Napa counties. East Bay is Alameda and Contra Costa counties. South Bay is Santa Clara County from 2001-2004 and Santa Clara and San Benito counties from 2005-2017.

Due to changes in occupation classifications during the analysis period, all occupations have been reassigned to 2010 SOC codes. For pre-2009 reporting years, all employment in occupations that were split into two or more 2010 SOC occupations are assigned to the first 2010 SOC occupation listed in the crosswalk table provided by the Census Bureau. This method assumes these occupations always fall in the same wage category, and sensitivity analysis of this reassignment method shows this is true in most cases.

In order to use OES data for time series analysis, several steps were taken to handle missing wage or employment data. For some occupations, such as airline pilots and flight attendants, no wage information was provided and these were removed from the analysis. Other occupations did not record a median hourly wage (mostly due to irregular work hours) but did record an annual average wage. Nearly all these occupations were in education (i.e. teachers). In this case, a 2080 hour-work year was assumed and [annual average wage/2080] was used as a proxy for median income. Most of these occupations were classified as high-wage, thus dispelling concern of underestimating a median wage for a teaching occupation that requires less than 2080 hours of work a year (equivalent to 12 months fulltime). Finally, the OES has missing employment data for occupations across the time series. To make the employment data comparable between years, gaps in employment data for occupations are ‘filled-in’ using linear interpolation if there are at least two years of employment data found in OES. Occupations with less than two years of employment data were dropped from the analysis. Over 80% of interpolated cells represent missing employment data for just one year in the time series. While this interpolating technique may impact year-over-year comparisons, the long-term trends represented in the analysis generally are accurate.

Analysis of ‘Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/79274f7e-5582-45bd-a1ef-f86f6f3a1c90 on 26 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Washington State, metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) and nonmetropolitan areas (NMA), 2020 OES is a program of the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This federal-state cooperative program produces employment and wage estimates for nearly 867 occupations. The occupational employment and wage estimates are based on data collected from the OES survey. The survey includes employment counts, occupations and wages from more than 4,200 Washington state employers. Data from six survey panels are combined to create a sample size of more than 26,400 employers. Blanks in the data columns indicate suppressed data.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Analysis of ‘Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/ec2114b7-6b39-4b40-bb5d-bdd65a1e2382 on 12 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Survey collects data from a sample of establishments and calculates employment and wage estimates by occupation, industry, and geographic area. The semiannual survey covers all non-farm industries. Data are collected by the Employment Development Department in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor. The OEWS Program estimates employment and wages for over 800 occupations from an annual sample of approx. 34,000 California employers. It also produces employment and wage estimates for statewide, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), and Balance of State areas. Estimates are a snapshot in time and should not be used as a time series.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Gross metro product per job (2013 inflation-adjusted dollars)

Analysis of ‘Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), Annual Average’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/361f6e22-af6e-4432-a987-843f1f147b14 on 26 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

This dataset contains the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), annual averages from 1990 to 2020.

The Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program is a Federal-State cooperative effort in which monthly estimates of total employment and unemployment are prepared for approximately 7,300 areas, including counties, cities and metropolitan statistical areas. These estimates are key indicators of local economic conditions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor is responsible for the concepts, definitions, technical procedures, validation, and publication of the estimates that State employment security agencies prepare under agreement with BLS. Estimates for the remainder of the substate labor market areas are produced through a building-block approach known as the "Handbook method." This procedure also uses data from several sources, including the CPS, the CES program, State UI systems, and the decennial census, to create estimates that are adjusted to the statewide measures of employment and unemployment. Below the labor market area level, estimates are prepared using disaggregation techniques based on inputs from the decennial census, annual population estimates, and current UI data.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Analysis of ‘CT Department of Labor, Office of Research - LAUS Substate Sept 2021’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/0a1a7ba4-c24d-40fe-bd83-233c7dee52f5 on 26 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

The Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program produces monthly employment, unemployment, and labor force data for Census regions and divisions, States, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities, by place of residence. The LAUS program is a federal-state cooperative endeavor in which states develop state and sub-state data using concepts, definitions, and technical procedures prescribed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). A major source of labor force data estimates, the Current Population Survey (CPS) includes a sample of over 1,600 Connecticut households each month regarding the labor force status of their occupants

Further information from the CT Department of Labor is available here: https://www1.ctdol.state.ct.us/lmi/LAUS/default.asp

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Analysis of ‘CT Department of Labor, Office of Research - Current Employment Statistics’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/9b34e508-4cb9-4944-a75d-f622747113a4 on 26 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Current Employment Statistics - Sept. 2021

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Analysis of ‘Not Seasonally Adjusted LAUS Estimates’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/4a5ab435-19d2-4288-abff-ef1f334c4695 on 13 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Historical resident Labor Force and Employment, not seasonally adjusted Index of Washington state and labor market areas, 1990-2022 Source: Employment Security Department/DATA; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

Context

U.S. Unemployment rate historical data, downloaded from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website.

Content

Data starts from 01-Jan-1948 and is available at monthly level.

Analysis of ‘Local Area Unemployment Statistics’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/452841df-b9bd-4e65-abda-ffad4f0bc242 on 13 February 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

The Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program is a federal-state cooperative effort which produces monthly estimates of produces monthly and annual employment, unemployment, and labor force data for approximately 7,000 areas including Census regions and divisions, States, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities.

This dataset includes data for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. To only see data for Connecticut, create a filter where "State name" is equal to "Connecticut".

For more information on the LAUS program and data visit: https://www.bls.gov/lau/

For more information from the CT Department of Labor visit: https://www1.ctdol.state.ct.us/lmi/LAUS/default.asp

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

This table provides information about labor supply and demand conditions in occupational labor markets in North Carolina’s eight regions (“Prosperity Zones”) and the statewide total.

A “Career Cluster” is a broad group of occupations. Each Career Cluster contains occupations that require similar knowledge and skills. A “Career Pathway” is a specific group of occupations falling under a broader “Career Cluster”. Specific occupations falling within a given Career Cluster, Career Pathway, and education level can be found on the Star Jobs table.

These data can be used to compare occupational labor markets within a given region. A low supply/demand rate indicates a “tight” labor market—with few jobseekers per job opening—while a high supply/demand rate indicates a “slack” labor market. A tight labor market presents opportunities for jobseekers, but can lead to challenges for employers looking to hire.

These data can also be used to assess the alignment between the labor market and our state’s talent pipeline. “Labor needed” is the amount of additional labor supply needed to attain the statewide or regional supply/demand rate. “Completers” is the average number of individuals completing higher education programs at the University of North Carolina system or the North Carolina Community College System.

Data are updated on an annual basis to accommodate methodology improvements and revisions to the underlying data inputs.

Technical details about methodology can be found here.

Data sources:

Labor supply: LEAD analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau (American Community Survey, 2014-2016 average)

Labor demand: LEAD analysis of data from the Conference Board^© and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014-2016 average)

Completers: LEAD analysis of data from the N.C. Common Follow-up System (2010-2015 average)

Replication package for "Business disruptions from social distancing"

Please cite as

Koren, Miklós and Rita Pető. 2020. "Replication package for «Business disruptions from social distancing»" [dataset] Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4012191

License and copyright

All text (*.md, *.txt, *.tex, *.pdf) are CC-BY-4.0. All code (*.do, Makefile) are subject to the 3-clause BSD license. All derived data (data/derived/*) are subject to Open Database License. Please respect to copyright and license terms of original data vendors (data/raw/*).

Data Availability Statements

The mobility data used in this paper (SafeGraph 2020) is proprietary, but may be obtained free of charge for COVID-19-related research from the COVID-19 Consortium. The authors are not affiliated with this consortium. Researchers interested in access to the data can apply at https://www.safegraph.com/covid-19-data-consortium (data manager: Ross Epstein, ross@safegraph.com). After signing a Data Agreement, access is granted within a few days. The Consortium does not require coauthorship and does not review or approve research results before publication. Datafiles used: /monthly-patterns/patterns_backfill/2020/05/07/12/2020/02/patterns-part[1-4].csv.gz (Monthly Places Patterns for February 2020, released May 7, 2020), /monthly-patterns/patterns/2020/06/05/06/patterns-part[1-4].csv.gz (Monthly Places Patterns for February 2020, released June 5, 2020) and /core/2020/06/Core-USA-June2020-Release-CORE_POI-2020_05-2020-06-06.zip (Core Places for June 2020, released June 6, 2020). The COVID-19 Consortium will keep these datafiles accessible for researchers. The authors will assist with any reasonable replication attempts for two years following publication.

All other data used in the analysis, including raw data, are available for reuse with permissive licenses. Raw data are saved in the folder data/raw/. The Makefile in each folder shows the URLs used to download the data.

SafeGraph

Citation

SafeGraph. "Patterns [dataset]"; 2020. Downloaded 2020-06-20.

License

Proprietary, see https://shop.safegraph.com/ or https://www.safegraph.com/covid-19-data-consortium (data manager: Ross Epstein, ross@safegraph.com)

O*NET

Citation

U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, 2020. "O*NET Online." Downloaded 2020-03-12.

License

CC-BY-4.0 https://www.onetonline.org/help/license

Current Employment Statistics

Citation

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2020. "Current Employment Statistics." https://www.bls.gov/ces/ Downloaded 2020-03-15.

License

Public domain: https://www.bls.gov/bls/linksite.htm

National Employment Matrix

Citation

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2018. "National Employment Matrix." https://www.bls.gov/emp/data/occupational-data.htm Downloaded 2020-03-15.

License

Public domain: https://www.bls.gov/bls/linksite.htm

Crosswalk

Citation

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2019. "O* NET-SOC to Occupational Outlook Handbook Crosswalk." https://www.bls.gov/emp/classifications-crosswalks/nem-onet-to-soc-crosswalk.xlsx Downloaded 2020-03-15.

License

Public domain: https://www.bls.gov/bls/linksite.htm

American Time Use Survey

Citation

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2018. “American Time Use Survey.” https://www.bls.gov/tus/.

We are using the following files:

• Respondent File
• Activity File
• Who File
• Replicate Weights
• Leave Module 2017-18

License

Data is in public domain.

County Business Patterns

Citation

U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2017. "County Business Patterns." Available at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html

License

https://www.census.gov/data/developers/about/terms-of-service.html

Dataset list

Raw data

| Data file | Source | Notes | Provided |

|-----------|--------|----------|----------|

| data/raw/bls/industry-employment/ces.txt | BLS Current Employment Statistics | Public domain | Yes |

| data/raw/bls/atus/*.dat | BLS Time Use Survey | Public domain | Yes |

| data/raw/bls/employment-matrix/matrix.xlsx | BLS National Employment Matrix | Public domain | Yes |

| data/raw/bls/crosswalk/matrix.xlsx | ONET-SOC to Occupational Outlook Handbook Crosswalk | Public domain | Yes |

| data/raw/onet/*.csv | ONET Online | Creative Commons 4.0 | Yes |

| data/raw/census/cbp/*.txt | County Business Patterns | Public domain | Yes |

| not-included/safegraph/02/*.csv| SafeGraph | Available with Data Agreement with SafeGraph | No |

| not-included/safegraph/05/*.csv| SafeGraph | Available with Data Agreement with SafeGraph | No |

Clean data

| Data file | Source | Notes | Provided |

|-----------|--------|----------|----------|

| data/clean/industry-employment/industry-employment.dta | BLS Current Employment Statistics | Public domain | Yes |

| data/clean/time-use/atus.dta | BLS Time Use Survey | Public domain | Yes |

| data/clean/employment-matrix/matrix.dta | BLS National Employment Matrix | Public domain | Yes |

| data/clean/onet/risks.csv | ONET Online | Creative Commons 4.0 | Yes |

| data/clean/cbp/zip_code_business_patterns.dta | County Business Patterns | Public domain | Yes |

Derived data

| Data file | Source | Notes | Provided |

|-----------|--------|----------|----------|

| data/derived/occupation/* | Various sources | Public domain | Yes |

| data/derived/time-use/atus_working_at_home_occupationlevel.dta | BLS Time Use Survey | Public domain | Yes |

| data/derived/crosswalk/* | Various sources | Public domain | Yes |

| not-included/safegraph/naics-zip-??.csv| SafeGraph | Available with Data Agreement with SafeGraph | Yes, with permission of SafeGraph |

| data/derived/visit/visit-change.dta| SafeGraph | Aggregated to 3-digit NAICS industries | Yes, with permission of SafeGraph |

Computational requirements

Software Requirements

• Stata (code was last run with version 16.1)
  • estout (from http://www.stata-journal.com/software/sj14-2/)
  • running make install from the root of the folder will install estout locally, and should be run once.

Portions of the code use bash scripting (make, wget, head, tail), which may require Linux or Mac OS X.

The entry point for analysis is analysis/Makefile, which can be run by GNU Make on any Unix-like system by

cd analysis
make

The dependence of outputs on code and input data is captured in the respective Makefiles.

We have used Mac OS X, but all the code should run on Linux and Windows platforms, too.

Hardware

The analysis takes a few minutes on a standard laptop.

Description of programs

1. Raw data are in data/raw/. This data is saved as it has been received from the data publisher, downloaded by the respective Makefiles. Each folder has a README.md with data citation and license terms.
2. Clean data are in data/clean/. Each folder has a Makefile that specifies the steps of data cleaning.
3. Analysis data are in data/derived/. Each folder has a Makefile that

Abstract

The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) program provides a continuous and comprehensive flow of data on the buying habits of American consumers. These data are used widely in economic research and analysis, and in support of revisions of the Consumer Price Index. To meet the needs of users, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) produces population estimates for consumer units (CUs) of average expenditures in news releases, reports, issues, and articles in the Monthly Labor Review. Tabulated CE data are also available on the Internet and by facsimile transmission (See Section XV. APPENDIX 4). The microdata are available online at http://www/bls.gov/cex/pumdhome.htm. These microdata files present detailed expenditure and income data for the Diary component of the CE for 2002. They include weekly expenditure (EXPD) and annual income (DTBD) files. The data in EXPD and DTBD files are categorized by a Universal Classification Code (UCC). The advantage of the EXPD and DTBD files is that with the data classified in a standardized format, the user may perform comparative expenditure (income) analysis with relative ease. The FMLD and MEMD files present data on the characteristics and demographics of CUs and CU members. The summary level expenditure and income information on the FMLD files permits the data user to link consumer spending, by general expenditure category, and household characteristics and demographics on one set of files. Estimates of average expenditures in 2002 from the Diary survey, integrated with data from the Interview survey, are published in Consumer Expenditures in 2002. A list of recent publications containing data from the CE appears at the end of this documentation. The microdata files are in the public domain and with appropriate credit, may be reproduced without permission. A suggested citation is: "U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, Diary Survey, 2002".

Analysis unit

Consumer Units

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Samples for the CE are national probability samples of households designed to be representative of the total U. S. civilian population. Eligible population includes all civilian noninstitutional persons. The first step in sampling is the selection of primary sampling units (PSUs), which consist of counties (or parts thereof) or groups of counties. The set of sample PSUs used for the 2002 sample is composed of 105 areas. The design classifies the PSUs into four categories: • 31 "A" certainty PSUs are Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA's) with a population greater than 1.5 million. • 46 "B" PSUs, are medium-sized MSA's. • 10 "C" PSUs are nonmetropolitan areas that are included in the CPI. • 18 "D" PSUs are nonmetropolitan areas where only the urban population data will be included in the CPI.

The sampling frame (that is, the list from which housing units were chosen) for the 2002 survey is generated from the 1990 Population Census 100-percent-detail file. The sampling frame is augmented by new construction permits and by techniques used to eliminate recognized deficiencies in census coverage. All Enumeration Districts (ED's) from the Census that fail to meet the criterion for good addresses for new construction, and all ED's in nonpermit-issuing areas are grouped into the area segment frame. To the extent possible, an unclustered sample of units is selected within each PSU. This lack of clustering is desirable because the sample size of the Diary Survey is small relative to other surveys, while the intraclass correlations for expenditure characteristics are relatively large. This suggests that any clustering of the sample units could result in an unacceptable increase in the within-PSU variance and, as a result, the total variance. Each selected sample unit is requested to keep two 1-week diaries of expenditures over consecutive weeks. The earliest possible day for placing a diary with a household is predesignated with each day of the week having an equal chance to be the first of the reference week. The diaries are evenly spaced throughout the year. During the last 6 weeks of the year, however, the Diary Survey sample is supplemented to twice its normal size to increase the reporting of types of expenditures unique to the holidays.

STATE IDENTIFIER Since the CE is not designed to produce state-level estimates, summing the consumer unit weights by state will not yield state population totals. A CU's basic weight reflects its probability of selection among a group of primary sampling units of similar characteristics. For example, sample units in an urban nonmetropolitan area in California may represent similar areas in Wyoming and Nevada. Among other adjustments, CUs are post-stratified nationally by sex-age-race. For example, the weights of consumer units containing a black male, age 16-24 in Alabama, Colorado, or New York, are all adjusted equivalently. Therefore, weighted population state totals will not match population totals calculated from other surveys that are designed to represent state data. To summarize, the CE sample was not designed to produce precise estimates for individual states. Although state-level estimates that are unbiased in a repeated sampling sense can be calculated for various statistical measures, such as means and aggregates, their estimates will generally be subject to large variances. Additionally, a particular state-population estimate from the CE sample may be far from the true state-population estimate.

INTERPRETING THE DATA Several factors should be considered when interpreting the expenditure data. The average expenditure for an item may be considerably lower than the expenditure by those CUs that purchased the item. The less frequently an item is purchased, the greater the difference between the average for all consumer units and the average of those purchasing. (See Section V.B. for ESTIMATION OF TOTAL AND MEAN EXPENDITURES). Also, an individual CU may spend more or less than the average, depending on its particular characteristics. Factors such as income, age of family members, geographic location, taste and personal preference also influence expenditures. Furthermore, even within groups with similar characteristics, the distribution of expenditures varies substantially. Expenditures reported are the direct out-of-pocket expenditures. Indirect expenditures, which may be significant, may be reflected elsewhere. For example, rental contracts often include utilities. Renters with such contracts would record no direct expense for utilities, and therefore, appear to have no utility expenses. Employers or insurance companies frequently pay other costs. CUs with members whose employers pay for all or part of their health insurance or life insurance would have lower direct expenses for these items than those who pay the entire amount themselves. These points should be considered when relating reported averages to individual circumstances.

Mode of data collection

Computer Assisted Personal Interview [capi]