The
Local Employment Dynamics (LED) program is an innovative, new
partnership between Iowa Workforce Development and
the U.S. Census Bureau, providing 29 Quarterly Workforce
Indicators (QWI) for each metropolitan area, county, and
Workforce Investment Board area.
The indicators show
economic trends by worker age and gender, by county and
Workforce Investment Act (WIA) area. Combined with local
expertise and information, an important tool is created for
decision makers, employers, workers, transportation agencies,
education and training institutions, and economic development
agencies. The LED partnership works to fill critical data
gaps and provide indicators for state and local authorities.
The
QWIs are updated quarterly, making them a valuable resource for
both current and historical data series needed to monitor
economic changes. They serve as early indicators to local
areas of emerging trends and help to identify turning points in
the dynamics of the workforce and specific industries.
The
LED database covers about 98 percent of the labor force.
Enhanced Unemployment Insurance wage records are the basic data
source for the QWIs. Administrative records and surveys
differ in coverage, timing of the data collection, and concept
definitions.
Because the LED
statistics come from a mixture of sources, they are not directly
comparable with statistics from worker-based surveys, such as
the decennial census, the American Community Survey, and the
Current Population Survey, or from employer-based surveys, such
as the Bureaus of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of
employment and Wages.
The LED database can respond to a wide variety of questions
about the workforce because it allows multiple definitions of
"employment" (e.g., "beginning of quarter employment," "full
quarter employment," and, "end of quarter employment"). The
QWIs are job-based statistics and are different from the
worker-based statistics familiar to many researchers.
For
detailed Iowa data, call (800) 532-1249.
See also, "LED:
ON THE MAP"
Links to Iowa Data:
Local Employment Dynamics
