Bureau of Labor Statistics November 20, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Department of Labor, through the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is responsible for the development and publication of local area labor force statistics. This program includes the issuance of monthly estimates of the labor force, employment, unemployment, and the unemployment rate for each State and labor market area in the nation. A hierarchy of estimation methods is used to produce the 7,300 estimates covered by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program (https://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d111/d111laws.html), based on the availability and quality of data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The strongest estimating methodsignal-plus-noise models with real-time benchmarking for current estimation and historical benchmarkingis employed for all States and the District of Columbia, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA metropolitan division, New York City, and the respective balances of New York and California. Models are also employed for five additional substate areas and their State balances. The areas are: the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL metropolitan division; the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH metropolitan area; the Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI metropolitan area; the Miami-Miami Beach- Kendall, FL metropolitan division; and the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA metropolitan division.