Macrodata – A single establishment or household (micro) data aggregated to any level. Data at the estimating cell level and summary cell levels are all macrodata.
          [See also - Microdata] 

Manufacturing – Establishments engaged in the mechanical or chemical transformation of materials or substances into new products. These establishments are usually described as plants, factories, or mills and characteristically use power–driven machines and materials handling equipment. The new product of a manufacturing establishment may be “finished” in the sense that it is ready for utilization or consumption, or it may be “semi–finished” to become a raw material for an establishment engaged in further manufacturing. 

Mass Layoff Event – This is a layoff in which 50 initial claims or more have been filed against an establishment during a five–week period, with the separations expected to last longer than 30 days. 

Mass Layoff Statistics Program (MLS) – A Bureau of Labor Statistics federal/state cooperative program that collects and publishes data on mass layoffs. 

Mean – The simplest of all statistical averages, it represents a set of observations and is obtained by dividing the sum of the observations by the number of observations. The mean can be weighted or unweighted. 
          [See also - Median, Mode]

Median – The middle value (or midpoint between two middle values) in a set of data arranged in order of increasing or decreasing magnitude. As such, one–half of the items in the set are less than the median and one–half are greater. 
          [See also - Mean, Mode]

Metropolitan Area (MA) – A geographic area comprising a county containing a central city of 50,000 inhabitants or more, plus continuous counties that are socially and economically integrated with the central city. A metropolitan statistical area is one type of MA. 

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) – An MSA is a relatively free standing MA typically surrounded by non–metropolitan counties. (New England MSAs are comprised of towns and cities, rather than counties.) 

Microdata – Data reported from an individual establishment or household.
          [See also - Macrodata] 

Micropolitan Statistical Area – These areas have at least one urban cluster of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000 population.  The areas also include adjacent counties having a minimum of 25 percent commuting to the central county.

Minimum Wage – The minimum hourly rate of pay required by either federal or state law. Iowa’s basic minimum hourly wage and the federal minimum hourly rate became $5.15 on September 1, 1997. The Iowa Division of Labor is responsible for enforcing the Iowa Minimum Wage Law. 

Minority – A term denoting all races except Caucasian. 

Mode – The most frequently occurring value in a group of values. Like the median, the mode is not influenced by extreme values in the group, but it is used less often in statistical analysis than either the median or the mean. 
          [See also - Mean, Median]

Model – A model is a mathematical equation that relates different variables and data. In time series, this relationship is computed over time. In the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) signal–plus–noise models, the monthly state Current Population Survey (CPS) labor force estimates are related to different independent variables and data that show strong correlations to the monthly estimates.

Multi–Establishment – A firm or reporting unit that consists of more than one establishment.

Alphabetical Glossary Listing

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Glossary References

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Iowa Workforce Information Network (IWIN)