Census: Longitudinal Employer – Household Dynamics

Description:

The LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) datasets are released at the Census block level in a series of state-based files available for download here: http://lehd.ces.census.gov/data/#lodes. This is the same data as what is available on Census’ OnTheMap application: http://onthemap.ces.census.gov/.

The Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program is part of the Center for Economic Studies at the U.S. Census Bureau. The LEHD program combines federal, state and Census Bureau data on employers and employees under the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership. Under the LED partnership, states share Unemployment Insurance earnings data and the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data with the Census. Census combines these data with additional federal administrative data, Census data, and surveys. The LEHD program also creates a partially synthetic dataset on workers’ residential patterns, offering a dynamic link showing where people live and where they work.

LED was built state by state, and a handful of state-year combinations are not available. These include Alaska (2017-2021), Arizona (2002, 2003), Arkansas (2002, 2019-2021), the District of Columbia (2002-2009), Massachusetts (2002-2010), Mississippi (2002 , 2003, 2019-2021), New Hampshire (2002), Puerto Rico (all years), and the U.S. Virgin Islands (all years). Data on the resident workforce exists for these locations but are not included on PolicyMap due to their incompleteness. The resident workforce values for these missing state-year combinations only show residents who live in these states but work elsewhere. For more on the LED Partnership see: http://lehd.ces.census.gov/state_partners/.

Federal employment is not counted in state Unemployment Insurance data, and as a result federal employment was not included in LEHD until 2010. Data shown by default on PolicyMap does not contain federal employment. However, additional variables in the legend allow users to see data with federal employment included for years 2010 onwards. In order to calculate percent changes in employment and workforce numbers, PolicyMap subtracted federal employment from certain indicators (as noted) from 2010 to the most recent years available.

Some demographic variables were introduced in 2009, including race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and sex. Because of the incomparability of the data between 2009 and 2010 with the introduction of Federal employment, PolicyMap chose to begin mapping these additional indicators in 2010.

LODES data are released at the 2020 Census tabulation block geographies and PolicyMap aggregated up to the larger geographies using Census provided relationship tables. PolicyMap displays all LEHD data at the TIGER 2010 boundary geographies, except CBSAs, which are shown at 2019 geographies, and congressional districts, which are shown at the 116^th congressional districts.