EXCEL AND POWERPOINT RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT : DATA ANALYSIS PLEASE REFER TO PROMPT

Labor Statistics  Employment and Unemployment  BLS Employment Situation Summary  Household Survey  “Official Rate” U3 : (UE/LF)  Omits “Part -Time” and “Discouraged Workers”  Inferior indicator of month -to -month fluctuations (sampling error of 0.12%)  Demographic and characteristic data on the population.  Workers perspective  Establishment Survey  Superior indicator of month -to -month fluctuations.  Wage, hours, and occupational data  Employers perspective Labor Statistics  Minimum Wage and Jobs  Card & Krueger, 1995, telephone survey found a minimum wage increase did not adversely impact jobs.  Neumark & Wascher , payroll records, suggested the opposite.  Overall concerns with research:  Wage vs. Compensation data  Job vs. hourly employment data  Effects on non minimum -wage workers (wage compression )  Diminishing job growth vs. diminishing jobs.  Inflation effects  Unionization  BLS Union Survey  Pre -1973 data came from direct union reports  Biased upward by larger union to strengthen image .  Biased downward by local unions to reduce dues.  Post -1973 data comes from a BLS survey.  In 1976 the questionnaire wording was changes from “union” to “union or employee association similar to a union”, increasing union affiliation.  BLS Strikes  Compiled by the BLS based on newspaper, magazine, and government reports.  Omits work stoppages less than 1000 workers Labor Statistics  Workplace Safety  BLS Workplace Safety  Fishing and logging are the most dangerous occupations.  In 2009 workplace injuries had dropped to the lowest level since recorded in 1992 (has increased slightly since).  May be due to job losses in historically dangerous industries.