BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' LAUS program produces monthly and annual estimates
of the labor force, employment, unemployment, and the unemployment rate for states,
metropolitan areas, counties, and cities. It is the source of the unemployment and
labor-force figures in this Commons.
Coverage
Base Data Commons graph
Source & License
- Publisher: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in cooperation with state workforce agencies.
- Access: Published at bls.gov/lau; served into this Commons through the Google Data Commons base graph.
- License: Public domain. BLS statistics are a work of the U.S. Government and carry no copyright; free to use and redistribute with attribution to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Methodology
- Not a simple count: sub-state LAUS figures are model-based estimates, not a headcount. They combine the Current Population Survey, the Current Employment Statistics survey, and state unemployment-insurance (UI) claims records through a signal-plus-noise statistical model, then control totals to the national CPS.
- Definitions: a person is "unemployed" if they had no job during the reference week, were available for work, and actively looked in the prior four weeks (or were on temporary layoff). The unemployment rate is the unemployed share of the labor force (employed + unemployed), NOT of the total population.
- Cadence & revision: published monthly; estimates are preliminary when first released and revised as more complete inputs arrive, with an annual benchmark revision each spring.
Coverage & caveats
- Geographies: states, metropolitan areas, counties, and cities/towns.
- Seasonality: county and city LAUS series are typically not seasonally adjusted, so month-to-month moves partly reflect seasonal hiring; compare the same month across years, or use annual averages.
- Small-area noise: estimates for small labor markets are more volatile and more heavily revised.
Variables (1)
| Variable | Source table |
|---|
|
Unemployment rate
Unemployment rate of person.
Population personMeasured unemployment rateStatistic measured value
|
LAUS unemployment rate |