The Census Bureau’s online mapping tool provides a wealth of
location-specific labor market information.
“If you want to put yourself on the map,
publish your own map.” -Ashleigh Brilliant
This isn’t your same old blog
post about data. Instead of analyzing and sharing data, this post covers how to
access an extremely useful “big data” labor market information tool. What is
this tool? The U.S. Census Bureau’s OnTheMap web-based mapping and reporting
application.
What’s so great about OnTheMap?
Typically, we report labor market information at the state and county level.
Local-level data is harder to come by. Along with the ability to provide labor
market profiles of small and large nonstandard areas, OnTheMap graphically
demonstrates where people work and where workers live. Users can define their
own geographies and obtain data and maps at the census-block level of detail. This
flexibility can quickly provide information for emergency and transportation
planning, site location and economic development.
- Do you want to understand commuting patterns for a particular area? OnTheMap can generate maps of outflow and inflow.
- Do you want to know the basic characteristics of workers in your town? OnTheMap has that information.
- Do you want to identify the employment characteristics along a specific stretch of highway? OnTheMap can deliver that data.
- Do you want to discern how many workers live within a 50-mile radius of a particular site? OnTheMap delivers.
Where does this data come from?
OnTheMap combines federal and state administrative data on workers and
employees with Census Bureau census and survey data. Don’t worry. Using
state-of-the-art methods, the Census Bureau is committed to protecting the
confidentiality of business and personal information.
Where People Work
Let’s run through a few
examples of how OnTheMap outputs can help you understand your local economy. Suppose
the Kearns City Council wants to know where the residents of their town work.
OnTheMap indicates more than a quarter of the city’s working residents are employed
in Salt Lake City.
Next, the mayor wants to know
how many workers travel into Kearns for employment. OnTheMap suggests that far
fewer workers commute in than out of Kearns. In-commuters are most likely to
drive from West Valley City.
Labor Market Characteristics
Now, these local government
officials have decided they would like to know the characteristics of
individuals that work or live in Kearns. OnTheMap can provide age-group,
earnings, industry, race/ethnicity, gender and educational attainment
information. For example, OnTheMap shows the following characteristics for
working residents of Kearns:
- More than half are between the ages of 30 and 54 years
- 30 percent make more than $3,333 a month
- 13 percent work in manufacturing
- More than 3,300 individuals are Latino
- 20 percent have at least a Bachelor’s degree
- 47 percent are female
Getting Specific
A company thinking of locating to Kearns is
interested in the number (and characteristics) of workers within a standard
commuting distance of a particular worksite. Economic development professionals
can specify a particular radius and obtain a report. Other shapes (donut and
plume) are also available. In addition, users can draw their own polygons in
OnTheMap. To determine how many workers may be inconvenienced by a road
construction project, just draw a line along the length of the project and
“buffer” the selection.
