Improving Estimates of Employment in Small Geographic Areas¹

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Orr, Blair^a | Buongiorno, Joseph^b

Affiliations: [a] Department of Forestry and Geology, The University of the South, Sewanee, TN 37375, USA | [b] Department of Forestry, University of Wisconsin, 1630 Linden Dr., Madison, WI 53706, USA

Note: [1] This material is based upon work supported under a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. Other support was received from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, McIntire-Stennis Grant 2855, and the School of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Abstract: Employment data for small geographic areas such as counties are often published only as ranges, to avoid disclosing information pertaining to a specific firm. This paper presents a procedure to reduce the range of employment data published by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The procedure involves two stages, the first one uses the published employment range together with data on the number of firms by size-class to make a first reduction in the range of employment in an industry and area. The second stage reduces that range further by using data from other industries in the same area. An example of the complete procedure is given. The results of applying the procedure to all two-digit industries in counties of six different states are also reported.

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-1989-153-402

Journal: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 15, no. 3-4, pp. 225-235, 1989