Assignment 3: Unemployment
1. Read the most recent unemployment release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm) State three important
takeaways from the report. **NOTE: If this link does not work, just google “BLS
unemployment release” and find the one for the most recent month.
- Employment saw a growth in leisure, hospitality, professional services, business
services, retail trade, transportation, and warehousing.
- Unemployment rate is at 4.0% (6.5 million unemployed) and did not change much
over January. Unemployment decreased by 2.4 percentage points over the year (3.7
million less unemployed people).
- Hourly earnings have increased for employees on private nonfarm payrolls over the
month and over the year, while the average workweek decreased in January
2. Use the BLS map function at https://www.bls.gov/data/#api to visualize the changes
from 2020 to 2021 using a comparison month of your choice (you can also compare
2019 to 2021 if you prefer). Then show the same comparison month from the peak
of the Great Recession to 2021 as an additional comparison point.
I included January 2022 since that was the latest BLS unemployment release.
Unemployment increased from January 2020 to January 2021, but decreased in January
2022 to around the same rate as January 2020. Unemployment rate increased dramatically
between 2008 and 2010 as the great recession rampaged. Then, it steadily decreased
between 2010 and 2020 as the economy recovered. The rate in January 2022 is slightly
lower than it was in 2008.
3.
4. Focus in on one specific state and do a county-level map for the same periods
chosen in (2). Pick a state that has county-level data.
We can see that the county-level data hasn’t changed a whole lot for Montana over time.
Wheatland county (square one in the middle) has seen an increase in unemployment
rate over time. Generally, unemployment rate decreased between 2008 and 2020. Then,
unemployment increased again in 2021.
- County-level data was not available for January 2022.
5. In addition to the maps you made, supplement your data-telling story regarding
unemployment with county-level data from Opportunity Insights:
https://www.tracktherecovery.org/
Woah this website is cool! We can see that when more COVID restrictions were put in
place, employment say a giant decrease, starting with when schools were closed on March
16, 2020. We can see that at the very bottom of the first big plunge is the first stimulus
payment. The unemployment claims graph (the second graph) mirrors the employment
graph, which makes total sense. Overall, in Montana, since August 2021, employment has
decreased compared to January 2020. Meanwhile, in low-income communities, Missoula
County employment has decreased a whopping 46.4% while Gallatin is only 17% (go
bobcats), with Montana as a whole being a decrease of 14%. This may be a result of these
counties including two of the largest college towns in Montana, and many college students
go home during the Summer. This may account for the larger decrease in unemployment
rate compared to the state. We can see that Dawson County saw a rapid decrease around
January 2021, possibly a result of their reliance on crop farming. Employment rates among
workers with above median wages decreased rapidly in Yellowstone County in April and
June 2021. My best guess would be something happened in Billings that could account for
this large decrease.
Submit your responses, which must include your maps and Opportunity Insights figures, in PDF
format to D2L.
