Important Information

Annual Revisions

Each year, historical labor force estimates are revised to reflect new Census Bureau population controls, updated input data, and reestimation. The model-based estimates also incorporate new seasonal adjustment, and the unadjusted estimates are controlled to new census division and U.S. totals. Substate area data are revised to incorporate updated inputs, reestimation, and controlling to new statewide totals.

Modeled Areas

On February 29, 2012, the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program released 2011 annual average labor force estimates for census regions and divisions; all States and the District of Columbia; the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA Metropolitan Division, the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division, the Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL Metropolitan Division, the Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area, New York city, NY, the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, and the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Metropolitan Division, as well as the seven corresponding balance-of-State areas. As described above, the data incorporate new population controls, updated inputs, reestimation of models, and adjustment to new census division and national control totals. Both not-seasonally-adjusted and smoothed-seasonally-adjusted (SSA) monthly data were revised back to January 2007. (For more information about SSA, please see the question and answer page.) The updated population controls reflect U.S. Census Bureau revisions from April 2010 forward.

Seasonally-adjusted statewide data for Puerto Rico were revised back to the start of the series in January 1976, to incorporate the smoothing procedure.

All annual average and historical supplemental items on the website containing data for model-based areas, including data files, rank tables, and maps, were updated to reflect these revisions on or shortly after February 29.

Substate Areas

On April 20, 2012, routine revisions were made to data from 2007 through 2011 for geographic areas below the State level (other than the model-based areas noted above), and official annual averages for 2011 were issued. For all areas, estimation inputs were revised back to 2010, while the revisions for 2007–09 consisted of controlling to the new State totals described above. The extent and scope of the data revisions were footnoted within the time-series database. Furthermore, all supplemental items on the LAUS homepage containing data for substate areas were updated to reflect these revisions.

Corrections

On March 30, 2012, mostly minor corrections were made to both not-seasonally-adjusted and smoothed-seasonally-adjusted estimates for Montana from January 2007 through December 2011.

On May 2, 2012, corrections were made to January 2012 data for substate areas in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, as well as the La Crosse, WI-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Sioux City-Vermillion, IA-NE-SD Combined Statistical Area.

 

Last Modified Date: May 2, 2012