bureau of labor statistics – St. Thomas Libraries Blog
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bureau of labor statistics

Libraries, News & Events, Services

Federal Government Shutdown affects Research

It’s happened: the Federal government has shut down.

For those of you doing research today, you may start to encounter a screen that looks a lot like this one:

census.gov

Because of the shutdown, many websites funded by the federal government are currently also down, including statistical organization websites, public sites, blogs, online surveys, and more. Many of them are used by UST researchers on a regular basis.

Below is a list of websites linked to on our subject guides that we currently know of that have been affected; we will try to keep it up-to-date with anything new we discover. 

If you would like assistance finding alternative resources for your research, please feel free to contact any UST Librarian.

Resource Status
American Community Survey Shutdown
American Factfinder Shutdown
Bureau of Labor Statistics (including Consumer Expenditure Survey) Up, but not being updated
Census Bureau Shutdown
Department of Energy Up, but not being updated
Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) Website is down, but content is still available via the ERIC database (EBSCO-owned). No new data is being uploaded to EBSCO.
Fedstats Shutdown
Library of Congress Shutdown – Interlibrary Loan will also NOT be available from any federal library, which could potentially cause delays
National Center for Education Statistics Shutdown
PubMed Up, but not being updated
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Shutdown
United States Geological Survey (USGS) Main site shutdown; some critical subsites still live

Archived versions of these websites can all be viewed on the WayBack Machine (waybackmachine.org).  Other options for alternative sources of information can be seen on this list compiled by the Pew Research Center.

More information about the shutdown and available government services can be found at USA.gov.

Business & Economics, News & Events, Recently Read

For the College Educated: Increasing Employment … Lower Unemployment …… and Higher Earnings.

 An interesting report and data summary on issues relating to higher education from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

By the numbers:

  • Over the 1992–2009 period, the number of college-educated workers increased from 27 million to 44 million.
  • In 2009, the unemployment rate for workers with college degrees was 4.6 percent. The rate for workers without a high school diploma was 10 points higher.
  • In 2009, the median weekly earnings of workers with bachelor’s degrees were $1,137. This amount is 1.8 times the average amount earned by those with only a high school diploma, and 2.5 times the earnings of high school dropouts.

These and myriad other data on degree attainment, student’s time use (1.5 hrs/day traveling? lots of commuter students I guess), degree attainment in U.S. compared to other countries, higher education workplaces, costs, etc.  Includes this interesting chart on Professor pay and employment by discipline:

prof_pay

Business & Economics

Industries with the most new jobs, 2008-18

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consulting will be the industry with the largest number of new jobs over the next decade.  “Three of the 10 detailed industries projected to have the most employment growth are in professional and business services: management, scientific, and technical consulting; computer systems design; and employment services. Altogether, these 3 industries are expected to add 2.1 million jobs.”  Find more details on these employment projections at the BLS website.

empl_growth

Business & Economics, Recently Read

BLS Spotlight on Statistics: Health Care

A selection of statistical data, charts, and graphs on various aspects of health care in the United States, from our friends at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also available as a 13 page pdf, this spotlight deals with costs, demographics, and employment data on health care, with some excellent explanatory graphics and links to the underlying data sources where researchers can go for more information.

Sample graphs:

 
Business & Economics

Happy Birthday to the BLS!

Source of much of the nation’s important economic data, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is celebrating it’s 125th anniversary in 2009.  Publisher of often used titles like the Occupational Outlook Handbook and the Monthly Labor Review, BLS is also the home of official national data on unemployment rates, mass layoffs, workplace injuries, inflation and price levels, consumer spending habits, productivity, and time use, to name just a few.  Check out their website to learn more.

Sample cool graphs:

unempl

Cell phone usage

Cell phone usage

Time Use

Time Use