Important Information

Annual Revisions

Each year, historical estimates from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program are revised to reflect new population controls from the Census Bureau, updated input data, and re-estimation. The data for model-based areas also incorporate new seasonal adjustment, and the unadjusted estimates are controlled to new census division and U.S. totals. Substate area data subsequently are revised to incorporate updated inputs, re-estimation, and controlling to new statewide totals.

Model-Based Areas

On March 2, 2022, the LAUS program issued 2021 annual-average civilian labor force and unemployment 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-Naperville-Arlington Heights, IL Metropolitan Division; the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area; New York city, NY; the Cleveland-Elyria, 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, re-estimation of models, and adjustment to new census division and national control totals. Both not-seasonally-adjusted and smoothed-seasonally-adjusted (SSA) monthly data for these areas were revised from January 2017 forward. Some notable features of the LAUS model revision cycle for 2021 are detailed at www.bls.gov/lau/important-information-on-revisions-to-data-for-model-based-areas-in-2022.htm.

Statewide data for Puerto Rico (which are not model-based, but rather are tabulated from a household survey similar to the Current Population Survey for the United States) also were revised for 2020 and 2021. The not-seasonally-adjusted data reflect the incorporation of new population controls beginning with April 2020, while the SSA data reflect re-seasonal adjustment and re-smoothing from January 2020 forward.

Annual-average and historical supplemental items on the LAUS program website containing data for model-based areas, including data files, rank tables, and maps, were updated on or shortly after March 2 to reflect these revisions.

Substate Areas

On April 15, 2022, routine revisions were made to data from 2017 through 2021 for geographic areas below the state level (other than the model-based areas noted above), and official annual averages for 2021 were issued. For all of these areas, estimation inputs were revised back to 2020, while the revisions for 2017–19 consist of, at minimum, controlling to the new state totals described above. In addition, some states revised at least some of their estimation inputs for some of their areas as far back as January 2010. For this reason, estimates for all non-modeled areas were footnoted as having been subject to revision from January 2010 forward within the time-series database on April 15.

Corrections

On June 29, 2022, small-area employment inputs for five areas in Maryland were corrected for January and February 2022. Due to additivity to the state level, these corrections resulted in minor changes to employment and labor force series for all areas in Maryland, as well as shared interstate areas with Delaware, the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania. Unemployment rates were affected in a small number of areas, and no area had an unemployment rate change larger than 0.3 percentage point. Affected metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions were re-seasonally adjusted for January and February 2022 accordingly in the tables at www.bls.gov/lau/metrossa.htm.

 

Last Modified Date: June 29, 2022