Workforce Supply

Workforce supply describes who is and is not working in the region. It includes information about households, employment and unemployment, and earnings and wages.

Households

A household includes all the people who occupy a housing unit (such as a house or apartment) as their usual place of residence. A household includes the related family members and all the unrelated people, if any, such as lodgers, foster children, wards, or employees who share the housing unit. A person living alone in a housing unit, or a group of unrelated people sharing a housing unit such as partners or roomers, is also counted as a household. The count of households excludes group quarters. There are two major categories of households, family and non-family.

Employment & Unemployment

Paid employment consists of full and part-time employees, including salaried officers and executives of corporations, who were on the payroll in the pay period including March 12. Employees on sick leave, holidays, and vacations are included. Proprietors and partners of unincorporated businesses are not included.

The labor force includes all people classified in the civilian labor force, plus members of the U.S. Armed Forces. The civilian labor force consists of people classified as employed or unemployed. Labor force participation rate represents the proportion of the population that is in the labor force.

Unemployment rates represent the number of unemployed people as a percentage of the civilian labor force. All civilians 16 years old and over are classified as unemployed if they:

  1. Were neither "at work" nor "with a job but not at work" during the reference week, and
  2. Were actively looking for work during the last four weeks, and
  3. Were available to accept a job.

Also included as unemployed are civilians who did not work at all during the reference week, were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off and were available for work except for temporary illness.

Earnings & Wages

What are the characteristics of people whose work in the region? These data can provide important information about who holds positions within a given geography and, when compared to demographic data, can highlight disparities.

Average monthly earnings includes wage or salary income, net income from nonfarm and farm self-employment, Armed Forces pay, commissions, tips, piece-rate payments, and cash bonuses. Earnings represent the amount of income received regularly before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc.

Average annual pay values are calculated by dividing total annual wages by the average of the twelve monthly employment levels. These calculations are made from unrounded employment and wage values, so the average wage values that can be calculated from data in this database may differ from the averages reported due to rounding.

Workforce Demand

Workforce demand describes the jobs that are available in the region. It includes industries, turnover, and layoffs.

Industries

The industry mix for a region speaks to the industries with the most openings or jobs. It includes the types of jobs available for an industry, the average earnings, the training needed, historical industry data, and the likelihood of employment in a given area to grow or decline in the future.

Average annual establishment represents the number of establishments and year-to-year change in employment for births, deaths, expansions, and contractions by firm age and employment size. The sectors are classified by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system.

Total wages is the amount expended for compensation of employees. It consists of gross amounts without deduction of withholdings for income tax, social security, or retirement coverage.

Turnover Rate

Business and firm statistics along with the turnover rates are useful in gauging the health of the employers in the region. They address questions about how many small businesses are in the region and how many people they employ.

Turnover rate is the rate at which stable jobs (full-quarter employment) begin and end. It describes the change in the workforce due to employee separations and hiring.

Firm job change is the difference between firm job gain and firm job loss, the estimated numbers of jobs gained or lost at firms throughout the quarter. This measure counts total employment increase or decrease at firms that grew over the course of the quarter

Layoffs

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to give their workers sixty days’ notice before a plant closing or mass layoff. This notice must be provided to either affected workers or their representatives, such as a labor union; to the State dislocated worker unit; and to the appropriate unit of local government.