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Geography 207
Autumn 2014
Research Project #1
Due: October 24, 2014
Name______________________
Quiz Section Time_____________
County Economic Profile
1. Objectives: The first objective of this research project is for you to construct an economic profile
for a Washington State county, utilizing federal government economic statistics, prepared by the U.S.
Bureau of Economic Analysis. The second objective is related to differences in measurement--the
issue of alternative measures for similar categories. This exercise is intended to give you experience
with and exposure to economic statistical information. However, it makes use of only a tiny fraction
of the economic data sources available; you are encouraged to explore additional data sources on your
own.
2. Location of Data Sources. The data required to complete the research project are available on the
World Wide Web. Paper copies of the same data sources may still become available in the
Government Publications collection in Suzzallo Library, and are often found on CD's located at
Government Publications or at CSSCR.
Computers in Geography (Smith 401, Smith 411, Smith 415). When not in use for a class, you can
log in to these computers. Use this login protocol: Netid\”your UW network id,” following this you
should get a prompt for a password, and enter “temporary.” Then follow instructions to establish a
permanent password.
3. About data sources.
U.S. Government
[Web-site:] http://www.census.gov
The U.S. Census Bureau measures economic activity in most industries in a census of the
economy every five years. In addition, it makes annual estimates of economic activity for many
industries. The censuses are organized by lines of industry; 2007 is the most recent year for which
complete economic census data are available. Here is a list of the 2007 Census industries, available
in the NAICS classification system:
NAICS codes
11
21
22
23
31-33
42
44-45
48-49
51
52
53
Economic Sector
Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting (separate census)
Mining
Utilities
Construction
Manufacturing
Wholesale Trade
Retail Trade
Transportation & Warehousing
Information
Finance & Insurance
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing
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54
55
56
61
62
71
72
81
92
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
Management of Companies and Enterprises
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation
Services
Educational Services
Health Care and Social Assistance
Arts, Entertainment and Recreation
Accommodation and Food Services
Other Services (except public administration)
Public Administration (separate Census of Government)
In addition, there are two annual series of importance:
Annual Survey of Manufactures
County Business Patterns.
The Annual Survey of Manufactures contains detailed statistics at the national and state level
on manufacturing output and trade. County Business Patterns provides county level data at up to a
six-digit level of detail on employment, wage payments, and establishment size. Paper copies of the
historic census and County Business Patterns are found in Government Publications.
In addition to the Census Bureau, there are two other major sources of federal economic
statistics: the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) ([Website:] http://www.bls.gov) and the U.S.
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) ([Website:] http:/www.bea.gov/) The DOL publishes an
online monthly series entitled Employment and Earnings, which provides current measures of
employment by industry and information on local labor markets. The DOL also publishes bulletins
focusing on employment trends and prospects, and occupational outlooks. It also publishes the
Monthly Labor Review, a journal describing industrial trends and special studies undertaken by the
DOL. BEA publishes the primary source of statistical information on GNP and national income
(entitled Survey of Current Business), which also contains much regional economic information. The
BEA also publishes economic forecasts and supplies much of its information on compact discs.
Washington State agencies
Washington State has a number of agencies that supply economic information. The Dept. of
Employment Security administers the unemployment compensation fund, and provides labor market
assistance in this state. Almost all employers provide monthly tabulations of wages paid and the
number of employees. These data are aggregated across establishments and published online as
spreadsheets; the series State and Local Area Industry Employment is a key series. The Department
of Revenue provides statistics on sales by industry (by jurisdiction), the Revenue and Forecast
Council provide a quarterly bulletin of economic statistics, and the Office of Financial Management
provides demographic statistics and analyses of labor force and personal income trends.
4. Assignment: A County Economic Profile & Data Sources Differences
One of the goals of this assignment is the creation of location quotients for a county economy,
using either Washington State or the United States as a benchmark. Location quotients are index
numbers, which describe the concentration of some category of economic or social activity in a region
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compared to a benchmark. They are simply the % of total activity in a region divided by the same %
in the benchmark region. In cases where the resulting calculation has a value greater than 1, then
there is a concentration of the activity in the region greater than in the benchmark. In cases where the
value is less than 1, then there is less of a concentration of the activity in the region than in the
benchmark.
The data you need for this research project are found (1) on the BEA website, and (2) also on
the class website (data from the Washington State Department of Employment Security). After
obtaining the data you are instructed to collect, you will need to do some simple calculations; these
can be done on any computer supporting a spreadsheet program such as Excel.
A. Select a county in Washington State for the purpose of this exercise from the
following list:
Chelan
Thurston
Kitsap
Yakima
Write the county name here.
B. Employment by Industry for the year 2012
Connect up to the following website:
http://www.bea.gov
On the opening page, click on State and Local Area Personal Income in the Regional set of
data. This will take you to a webpage entitled Regional Economic Accounts. Under the menu
labeled Data, click on Local Area Personal Income and Employment. This will take you to another
web page, that has links to a number of data series. Select series CA25/CA25N, total full and part
time employment by industry. Then you will have another webpage, with a choice of data for SIC or
NAICS classifications. Select the NAICS link, and click “Next Step”. The next screen will give you
a choice of geography; select county and then click “Next Step.” Then you will get a screen with
states; scroll down in the geographic file, and click on Washington State. Click on the Next Step
button. The screen will now change again, and a list of counties will pop up. Scroll down to the
county you have selected, and click Next Step. Now the next page will have various years for which
NAICS data are available; select 2012 and click Next Step. The data you have selected will now
come up on screen, with options for saving the file displayed. You can download the data either as a
.csv file or as an Excel spreadsheet. Click on the Save button, and then save the file to whatever
location you want to put it, and RENAME the file to something like the county name or whatever the
geography is that you are saving.
Now you need to get data for your benchmark (either the U.S. or Washington State). Repeat
this process just described to obtain data for either Washington State or the United States, to be used
as your benchmark. Go to the State tab on the CA25 website and you will see the U.S. total data; on
the Area/Statistic tab you will find the state total. Save whichever of these totals you want to use for
your computations. The classification will be exactly as in the table below.
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The result of these requests should be data which has the format of the table below.
Note that these data are reported in a nested format. Thus: Total employment = wage and salary
employment + proprietors employment. Proprietors employment is split into farm and nonfarm
proprietors employment. Total employment is split into Farm employment and nonfarm employment.
Nonfarm employment is further divided into private employment and government employment.
Private employment is divided into the categories from “forestry, fishing, and related activities”
through “other services.” Government employment is divided into federal civilian and military, and
state and local government (which is further divided into state government and local government).
LineCode
10
20
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
1400
1500
1600
1700
1800
1900
2000
2001
2002
2010
2011
2012
LineTitle
Total employment
By Type:
Wage and salary employment
Proprietors employment
Farm proprietors employment
Nonfarm proprietors employment 2/
By Industry
Farm employment
Nonfarm employment
Private employment
Forestry, fishing, related activities, and other 3/
Mining
Utilities
Construction
Manufacturing
Wholesale trade
Retail trade
Transportation and warehousing
Information
Finance and insurance
Real estate and rental and leasing
Professional, scientific, and technical services
Management of companies and enterprises
Administrative and waste services
Educational services
Health care and social assistance
Arts, entertainment, and recreation
Accommodation and food services
Other services, except public administration
Government and government enterprises
Federal, civilian
Military
State and local
State government
Local government
After saving the two files, You will now need to undertake the calculation of the location
quotients. So, you will need to open both your county file and the state or U.S. file. Copy the column
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of data for your benchmark, and then paste this into the county spreadsheet, aligning the rows so that
the data items for the county and the benchmark are the same. When pasting the data use the EditPaste-Special-Values selection in Excel. Now in a blank column, put the active cell to the wage and
salary employment row. Now type in the formula for the location quotients: =(county column value
and county row value/ county column value & $county total value)/(benchmark column value &
benchmark row value/benchmark total column & $benchmark row value). Be sure to put a $ sign
before the total row value for the county and for the total employment value for the benchmark. This
holds the denominators constant when you extend the computation to all the industries. Now, having
obtained the location quotient for the first row of data, you want to extend your computations to the
rest of the industries. Put the active cell over the first location quotient, and holding down the left
mouse button, drag the selection of cells down to the last industry (local government). Now take the
cursor and go to the Edit tab, and select Edit-Fill-Down (or ctrl-D). This will extend your
calculations to the rest of the industries. Try to be orderly about the organization of your data, so that
you can copy your work from Excel into Word and have a nice table with your location quotients in
it. (Truncate the number of digits to the right of the decimal to no more than 3).
B. An Alternative Data Source, Washington State Department of Employment Security. Let us
now obtain data for the same county from another source, the Washington State Department of
Employment Security. On the class website you will find a spreadsheet labeled qcew-annualaverages-2012-revised.xls
Let us obtain the annual average estimate of employment in Finance and Insurance from the
ESD data. ESD ________ (Each county has its own sheet; you may need to use the scroll buttons to
get to your county). Now, compare this estimate with the value for Finance and Insurance in the BEA
data you downloaded. BEA _________ Are they nearly the same or quite different? If quite
different, what is the explanation for this difference?
5. Write an interpretive essay, which summarizes your results, indicating industries in
which the county is specialized or lacks compared to the benchmark you have used. Assume that you
were trying to provide someone unfamiliar with this county a picture of its distinctive economic
characteristics- what is it specialized in and what does it lack specialization in compared to the
benchmark you have used? How does the choice of the benchmark affect your computations? Your
essay should build upon the results obtained above to "paint this picture" of your county. ESD and
the State of Washington Department of Commerce also have descriptions of county economies in the
state on their websites. You can probably use Google to track these down. Regarding the two
sources of employment data for your county, what are the differences? Why do you think that they
are different (clue: read the comments on-line about definitions of the categories/coverage). Please
attach copies of your location quotients when you turn in this exercise.
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