# Work, wages and access to jobs: report

Chapter 5.1 of ZIP Code Destiny, by Vishal Singh (NYU Stern). Generated from the chapter's data files; the reading version is at https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs. Table n of this report is figure n of the chapter.

## Identification

- Title: Work, wages and access to jobs
- Label: Jobs here, workers there
- Chapter: 5.1 (Part V, Home, work and money; An American life)
- Question: How do employment, wages and access to jobs differ across counties and neighborhoods, and how far do residents' earnings differ from the wages that employers in their county pay?
- Dek: In 2019, in the fifth of counties with the fewest local jobs per job held by residents, 45.4% of residents' jobs were in the top earnings band, against 39.5% of the jobs located in those counties.
- Grain: counties
- Status: published
- Published: 2026-10-09
- Updated: not revised
- Data sources:
  - BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics. County annual-average unemployment, 2000 to 2024 (map: 2023); residents by county of residence; years: 1990-2024; weights: labor force of each county for pooled rates; each county once for distributions
  - BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. County total-covered employment and wages, 2019 and 2023; jobs by county of the workplace; years: 1990-2024; weights: none (full counts of covered payroll); jobs in each county for pooled pay
  - LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics. Residence, workplace and origin-destination tables, 2010, 2015 and 2019 (Alaska and Massachusetts left out); years: 2002-2022; weights: jobs in each table; bootstrap over states for counties and over counties for tracts
  - American Community Survey. 2019-2023 tract unemployment, labor force participation, commute and work-from-home shares; years: 2019-2023 (5-year); weights: 2019-2023 tract population
  - Area Deprivation Index. Area Deprivation Index 2023, national rank by tract; years: 2023 release (version 4.0.1; built on ACS 2019-2023); weights: none (index); tract values are unweighted means of block-group ranks
  - Rural-Urban Continuum Codes. 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes for county types and 2020 county population for correlation weights; years: 2023; weights: 2020 county population
- Canonical URL: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs
- Report: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/report
- Markdown: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/report.md
- BibTeX key: singh2026workwagesandaccesstojobs

```bibtex
@misc{singh2026workwagesandaccesstojobs,
  author = {Singh, Vishal},
  title = {Work, wages and access to jobs},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs},
  note = {In ZIP Code Destiny. Published 9 October 2026.}
}
```

## Principal estimates

The facts the dek and the opening prose cite, in order of appearance.

| Estimand | Population | Period | Value | Interval | n | Weights | Source | Fact id |
| --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- |
| jobs in the top earnings band summed over the counties of the group, divided by jobs summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 45.4% | 95% CI 43.4% to 47.3% | 619 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics | rs_lowest_fifth |
| jobs in the top earnings band summed over the counties of the group, divided by jobs summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs located in the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 39.5% | 95% CI 36.7% to 42.1% | 619 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics | ws_lowest_fifth |
| jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 45.4% | 95% CI 41.8% to 49.1% | 3,099 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics | out_all_2019 |

## Findings

In 2019, in the fifth of counties with the fewest jobs located per job held by residents, 45.4% of the jobs held by residents were in the top earnings band, against 39.5% of the jobs located there. The counts are from the LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES), and Alaska and Massachusetts are left out of every LODES figure. In the same year 45.4% of the jobs placed at residents' homes were located in a different county.

The jobs a county's residents hold are therefore not the jobs located in the county, and this chapter keeps the two apart. Unemployment is counted among the people who live in a county, pay is counted for the jobs located there, and the earnings that residents bring home come from jobs wherever they are.

The data are counts for counties and tracts, so every claim describes places and not the workers inside them (ecological inference). The chapter shows who is counted in each source before it compares them, and it names the group, residents or jobs located, with every number.

### What each source counts

Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) counts people by where they live. Its county figures are annual averages of monthly estimates that the Bureau of Labor Statistics builds from payroll counts, unemployment insurance claims and survey data and controls to state totals from a model.[1] The county file carries no margin of error, and the estimates for the smallest counties are the least certain. The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) counts jobs by where they are located, from the wage reports of employers covered by state unemployment insurance. It leaves out the self-employed and some farm and domestic workers, counts part-time jobs as jobs, and includes bonuses in wages.[2]

LODES places each job in three tables: at the worker's home, at the workplace, and as a pair of home county and work county.[3] LODES counts jobs, not people, so a worker with two jobs is counted once for each job. It adds noise to protect confidentiality, and it reports earnings only in three fixed bands of monthly earnings in current dollars.[4] The lowest band ends at $1,250 a month, and in this chapter a job is in the top band when it pays more than $3,333 a month. The cut does not move with prices, so shares of jobs in a band are compared within one year only.

The American Community Survey (ACS) supplies unemployment, labor force participation, commuting and work-from-home measures for residents of 2020 tracts. The Area Deprivation Index (ADI) ranks those tracts from least to most deprived.[5] The ADI is built partly from tract unemployment, income, the white-collar share of employed people and the share of households without a vehicle. A gradient in unemployment, earnings, commuting or working from home against it is therefore partly mechanical, and each tract figure below says so.

### The order of county types by unemployment reversed in 2020

Across the 3,143 counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file, the pooled unemployment rate of residents in 2023 was 3.6% (95% CI 3.3% to 3.9%), each county weighted by its labor force. Counted once each, counties ran from 2.1% at the fifth percentile to 5.6% at the ninety-fifth, around a median of 3.4% (Table 1). The map shows where residents live, wherever they work.

A rate of 10% or more was published for 6 counties. The two highest published estimates were for Imperial County, California, at 17.6%, and the Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, at 14.8%. Estimates for small counties lean hardest on the model. In 2023, 296 counties had a labor force under 2,000, and in a county that small a high rate can rest on a few hundred people.

Table 1. Unemployment among residents was 3.6% across counties in 2023, differed little between county types, and reached 10% or more in 6 counties

Unemployment differs less between county types than it moves over time. Grouping counties by the 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Code gives three types: metropolitan counties, nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns (an urban population of 5,000 or more), and nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none (Table 2). The metropolitan rate was below that of the smaller-town counties in each of the 20 years from 2000 to 2019, and the interval for the difference lies entirely below zero in 12 of them.

In 2019 the pooled rates were 3.6% (95% CI 3.4% to 3.8%) in metropolitan counties, 4.1% (95% CI 3.8% to 4.3%) in the larger-town counties and 4.3% (95% CI 3.9% to 4.7%) in the smaller-town counties. The metropolitan rate was 0.5 (95% CI 0.3 to 0.7) points below that of the larger-town counties and 0.7 (95% CI 0.4 to 1.0) points below that of the smaller-town counties.

The order reversed in 2020, when the pooled rate of all counties rose from 3.7% (95% CI 3.5% to 3.8%) in 2019 to 8.1% (95% CI 7.4% to 8.7%). Metropolitan counties then had a rate of 8.2% (95% CI 7.5% to 8.8%). That was 0.9 (95% CI 0.4 to 1.5) points above the 7.3% (95% CI 6.9% to 7.6%) of the larger-town counties and 1.5 (95% CI 0.7 to 2.2) points above the 6.7% (95% CI 6.2% to 7.3%) of the smaller-town counties.

By 2023 the three pooled rates were 3.6%, 3.7% and 3.8%. The interval for the metropolitan minus smaller-town difference, −0.1 (95% CI −0.5 to 0.2) points, includes zero. The data describe the rates and do not say why the order reversed.

The intervals come from resampling states, so they show how much each pooled rate depends on which counties and states are in a group. They do not capture the model error of the county estimates, which the county file does not carry. No annual average is published for 7 Louisiana parishes in 2005 and 2006 (14 county-years), and the pooled rates of those years leave them out.

Table 2. Metropolitan counties went from a lower unemployment rate than nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns in 2019 (3.6% against 4.3%) to a higher one in 2020 (8.2% against 6.7%)

### What employers in a county pay

QCEW reports total wages and average employment for the jobs located in each county. In 2023, 3,141 counties had a published average annual pay per job, and together they held 148.0 million covered jobs. Counted once each, counties ran from $39,160 at the fifth percentile to $72,089 at the ninety-fifth, around a median of $49,668 (Table 3).

Weighted by jobs, the mean was $71,075. The mean sits near the metropolitan figure because metropolitan counties hold 88.9% of the covered jobs. Jobs located in metropolitan counties paid $73,585 on average, against $51,618 in nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns and $48,786 in those with smaller towns or none.

Santa Clara County and San Mateo County, California, had the two highest county averages, $174,694 and $174,319. Worth County, Missouri, with 385 jobs, had the lowest, $29,704.

Every one of these figures is the pay of jobs located in a county. It is not the earnings of the people who live there, who may work in another county, and the next section measures how far the two differ. The income of residents, as tax returns report it, is in Chapter 5.2, Home value, income and redlining (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/home-value-income-and-redlining).

The Bureau withholds the totals of 1 county in 2023, Eureka County, Nevada, to protect an employer's confidentiality, and the map draws it gray. The county-by-sector detail is withheld more often. In 2023 the Bureau withheld 25% of the cells for private employers, 32% for local governments and 29% for state governments. A withheld cell is missing and not zero, and the sector cells cannot be summed to rebuild a county's private pay, so this chapter uses the county totals only.

Table 3. Jobs located in metropolitan counties paid $73,585 a year on average in 2023, against $48,786 in nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none

### Residents and workplaces are different groups of jobs

Commuting across county lines is common. Of the 142.0 million jobs in the 2019 LODES flows, 45.4% (95% CI 41.8% to 49.1%) were held by residents of one county and located in another. A survey of workers gives a lower share, 28% of workers traveling to a different county in the American Community Survey for 2009 to 2013.[6] LODES counts every job, second jobs included, and assigns the workplaces of employers with several sites by a model, so the two levels are not comparable.

The share rises as counties get smaller (Table 4). It was 44.1% (95% CI 40.3% to 48.3%) for residents of metropolitan counties, 51.5% (95% CI 49.1% to 53.4%) for the nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns and 62.4% (95% CI 59.5% to 64.8%) for those with smaller towns or none. The larger-town counties exceed the metropolitan counties by 7.4 (95% CI 2.7 to 10.9) points. The smaller-town counties exceed the larger-town counties by 11.0 (95% CI 9.0 to 12.9) points and the metropolitan counties by 18.4 (95% CI 13.7 to 22.0) points.

The share rose between 2010 and 2019 in each type, over the same states in every year. Across all counties it went from 44.1% to 45.4%, a rise of 1.3 (95% CI 0.9 to 1.6) points. In metropolitan counties it went from 43.0% to 44.1%, a rise of 1.1 (95% CI 0.8 to 1.5) points. In larger-town counties it went from 48.6% to 51.5%, a rise of 2.9 (95% CI 2.4 to 3.3) points, and in smaller-town counties from 59.5% to 62.4%, a rise of 3.0 (95% CI 2.5 to 3.4) points.

Table 4. In 2019, 62.4% of the jobs held by residents of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none were in another county, against 44.1% for residents of metropolitan counties

Commuting separates the jobs located in a county from the jobs its residents hold, and the two differ in what they pay. LODES reports both in the same earnings bands, so the share of jobs in the top band can be compared directly. The 3,099 counties are ranked by jobs located per job held by residents and cut into fifths. In the fifth with the fewest jobs located per resident job (at most 0.60), 45.4% (95% CI 43.4% to 47.3%) of jobs held by residents were in the top band, against 39.5% (95% CI 36.7% to 42.1%) of jobs located there (Table 5). The difference is 5.9 (95% CI 3.2 to 7.8) points.

The order reversed in the fifth with the most jobs per resident job (at least 1.01). There 47.8% (95% CI 46.0% to 49.3%) of residents' jobs were in the top band against 49.8% (95% CI 47.8% to 51.5%) of jobs located, a difference of 2.0 (95% CI 1.2 to 2.9) points in the other direction.

Table 5. In the fifth of counties with the fewest jobs per resident job, 45.4% of jobs held by residents were in the top earnings band against 39.5% of the jobs located there

The lowest and highest fifths hold different shares of the jobs and different kinds of county. The fifth with the fewest jobs located per resident job holds 6.3% of the jobs held by residents and 3.2% of the jobs located. Of its counties, 47.7% are metropolitan and 43.9% are nonmetropolitan with smaller towns or none.

The fifth with the most jobs per resident job holds 46.0% and 56.5%, and 52.3% of its counties are metropolitan. Moving the county at a cut to the next fifth changes any of these shares by up to 0.1 points.

Jobs located vary more across these fifths than jobs held by residents do. From the lowest to the highest fifth the top-band share of jobs located rises by 10.3 (95% CI 8.5 to 12.5) points and the share among jobs held by residents by 2.4 (95% CI 0.5 to 4.5) points, a difference of 7.9 (95% CI 5.7 to 9.7) points. The jobs that residents hold differ less across places than the jobs located in those places.

County by county, the top-band share of jobs held by residents exceeded that of jobs located in 66.0% (95% CI 63.8% to 68.3%) of the 2,877 counties with at least 1,000 jobs in each table (Table 6). Noise in the small-county shares pulls dots apart in both directions, so the share above the diagonal is the figure to read, not the slope of the cloud.

Table 6. In 66.0% of counties the jobs held by residents were more often in the top earnings band than the jobs located in the county

QCEW pay describes jobs located, and it tracks the workplace measure more closely than the residence measure. Across the counties with a published average pay in 2019, weighted by 2020 population, pay correlates +0.87 (95% CI 0.86 to 0.92) with the top-band share of jobs located and +0.73 (95% CI 0.69 to 0.77) with the top-band share of jobs held by residents. The difference is +0.15 (95% CI 0.11 to 0.21). That is consistent with the pay in a county describing its jobs and not its residents' earnings. Part of the contrast may come from a shared source, since QCEW and the LODES workplace table both draw on state unemployment insurance wage records. The data give residents' earnings only as three bands, so they cannot say how many dollars residents bring home. How earnings and income move across generations is the subject of Chapter 4.3, Race, income and mobility (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/race-income-and-mobility).

### Residents and jobs in neighborhoods of different deprivation

The ACS and the residence table of LODES describe the same tracts. The ADI orders every tract in the country, so the tenths and fifths below are national groups of tracts. Table 7 compares the least deprived and the most deprived tenth of the 81,038 tracts with a rank. The ACS measures cover people aged 16 and over.

Unemployment among residents was 4.9% (95% CI 4.3% to 5.4%) in the least deprived tenth and 8.6% (95% CI 8.2% to 9.0%) in the most deprived. Labor force participation was 66.1% (95% CI 65.4% to 66.7%) and 54.8% (95% CI 54.3% to 55.3%). The share of workers who work from home was 23.4% (95% CI 22.0% to 25.3%) and 5.9% (95% CI 5.7% to 6.2%).

Among commuting workers, those who do not work from home, the share with a commute of an hour or more was 12.0% (95% CI 10.1% to 14.3%) in the least deprived tenth and 7.3% (95% CI 6.9% to 7.7%) in the most deprived. Long commutes are more common where deprivation is lower. Among jobs held by residents, 60.1% (95% CI 57.1% to 63.3%) were in the top band in the least deprived tenth and 30.4% (95% CI 29.9% to 30.9%) in the most deprived. The index includes several of these measures, as the first section notes, so every gradient here overlaps with it and is partly mechanical.

Table 7. In the most deprived tenth of tracts, 30.4% of jobs held by residents were in the top earnings band against 60.1% in the least deprived tenth, and unemployment was 8.6% against 4.9%

The jobs located in a tract can differ from the jobs its residents hold, and the difference depends on the county (Table 8). In metropolitan counties the top-band share of jobs held by residents fell from 57.5% (95% CI 54.5% to 60.5%) in the least deprived fifth of tracts to 32.6% (95% CI 32.1% to 33.2%) in the most deprived. The share of jobs located in the same tracts fell from 53.3% (95% CI 50.0% to 56.5%) to 43.7% (95% CI 42.6% to 44.6%).

In the most deprived fifth, the gap between the top-band share of jobs located and that of jobs held by residents was +11.0 (95% CI 10.1 to 11.9) points in metropolitan counties and +1.9 (95% CI 1.4 to 2.4) points in nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns. In those with smaller towns or none it was −0.2 (95% CI −0.8 to 0.3) points, an interval that includes zero. Because the index includes tract income and employment, the fall in the share of jobs held by residents across the fifths is partly mechanical. The staged data have no tract-to-tract flows, so they cannot say whether the better-paid jobs in deprived metropolitan tracts are held by the tracts' residents or by people who commute in.

Table 8. In the most deprived fifth of tracts in metropolitan counties, 43.7% of jobs located there were in the top earnings band against 32.6% of jobs held by the tracts' residents

Whether residents of poor neighborhoods can reach the jobs that match their skills has a long history in economics under the name of spatial mismatch. The idea began with a study of housing segregation and the suburbanization of employment.[7] This chapter's tract figures show where jobs and workers are by tract. They do not measure travel time, transit or the matching of skills to openings, and they cannot test that hypothesis. The earnings that college graduates reach are in Chapter 4.1, College access, price and earnings (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/college-access-price-and-earnings).

### What these data cannot show

All the patterns here are descriptions of counties and tracts. The pooled rate of a county type, the share of jobs in the top band for a group of counties and the gradient across groups of tracts say nothing certain about any worker.

Unemployment and pay come from different groups. LAUS and the ACS count residents, QCEW counts jobs located in a county, and LODES counts jobs at either end of the commute, so no figure here gives the pay of a county's residents in dollars. LODES shows only three bands. A fixed band in current dollars holds more jobs each year as prices and pay rise, so the shares apply to 2019 and say nothing about change over time. The same dollar cut also buys different amounts in different places, so top-band shares are not comparisons of purchasing power. Counting jobs and not people means a worker with two jobs is counted once for each, and noise added for confidentiality makes the shares of small counties and tracts imprecise.

The county unemployment estimates are modeled, and the county file carries no margin of error. The intervals here reflect which places are in each group, and a high rate in a county with a small labor force can rest on few people. Connecticut is drawn as its legacy counties, and the unemployment values there are spread from planning regions by population, so they are approximate. Puerto Rico's 78 municipios are in the LAUS file and are not drawn. The ACS tract file has no margins of error. A cell of county type by fifth of tracts is drawn only with at least 30 tracts, which leaves out the least deprived fifth of the nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none. The ADI averages block-group ranks without population weights, leaves 1,580 tracts without a rank, and understates deprivation in high-cost cities. Jobs in tracts with no rank are left out of the tract figures: 3.1% of jobs located and 0.3% of jobs held by residents. A tract has no rank when every block group in it is suppressed, for example for group quarters or small populations.

LODES is incomplete for some state-years, and the residence table is almost empty where a state has no workplace table or only a stub. Alaska has no workplace file for 2019, and its residence table holds 3,090 jobs for that year against 308,964 in 2015. The Massachusetts workplace file for 2010 is a stub of 2 tracts and 17 jobs, and its residence table holds 151,718 jobs against 3,330,566 in 2015. A stub reads as a complete file unless the jobs are compared, so the build compares workplace jobs with residence jobs. Alaska and Massachusetts are left out of every LODES figure, so every year of the commuting trend covers the same states. The 2022 files lack Alaska and Michigan, so 2019 is the year used for residents against workplaces. Puerto Rico is not drawn and is not in the LODES tables used here.

The comparison of residents with workplaces is for counties and tracts. It cannot say who holds the better-paid jobs in a deprived neighborhood, whether commuting costs or hiring practices keep residents from them, or how many workers would take them if they could.

## Tables

### Table 1. Unemployment among residents was 3.6% across counties in 2023, differed little between county types, and reached 10% or more in 6 counties

Unemployment rate, percent of the civilian labor force, annual average 2023, residents of each county, modeled estimates

No inline rows: the values of Table 1 are in https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/unemployment_map.json.

Note: LAUS county estimates are built from payroll counts, unemployment insurance claims and survey data and are controlled to state totals from a model; the county file carries no margin of error. 296 counties have a labor force below 2,000, and their estimates are the least certain.

Note: LAUS codes Connecticut by planning region. The map draws the eight legacy counties, with the counts of unemployed residents and the labor force of each planning region spread over them in proportion to 2020 population, so the Connecticut values are approximate. Puerto Rico is not drawn; its 78 municipios are in the file.

Note: The tooltip gives the labor force of each county.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, county annual averages, 2023; modeled estimates, not weighted

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/unemployment_map.json

### Table 2. Metropolitan counties went from a lower unemployment rate than nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns in 2019 (3.6% against 4.3%) to a higher one in 2020 (8.2% against 6.7%)

Unemployment rate, percent of the civilian labor force, pooled over the counties of each type, annual averages 2000 to 2024, residents of each county, modeled estimates

| Year | County type | Pooled rate (percent) | Lower limit of the 95% interval | Upper limit of the 95% interval | Counties |
| ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 2000 | All counties | 3.99 | 3.67 | 4.27 | 3,140 |
| 2000 | Metropolitan | 3.89 | 3.51 | 4.20 | 1,185 |
| 2000 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 4.52 | 4.22 | 4.80 | 903 |
| 2000 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 4.81 | 4.43 | 5.23 | 1,052 |
| 2001 | All counties | 4.74 | 4.47 | 4.96 | 3,140 |
| 2001 | Metropolitan | 4.63 | 4.31 | 4.89 | 1,185 |
| 2001 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 5.28 | 4.96 | 5.62 | 903 |
| 2001 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 5.54 | 5.09 | 6.00 | 1,052 |
| 2002 | All counties | 5.79 | 5.45 | 6.06 | 3,140 |
| 2002 | Metropolitan | 5.75 | 5.34 | 6.06 | 1,185 |
| 2002 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 6.00 | 5.65 | 6.32 | 903 |
| 2002 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 6.16 | 5.70 | 6.65 | 1,052 |
| 2003 | All counties | 5.99 | 5.61 | 6.27 | 3,140 |
| 2003 | Metropolitan | 5.93 | 5.51 | 6.24 | 1,185 |
| 2003 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 6.29 | 5.95 | 6.60 | 903 |
| 2003 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 6.42 | 5.96 | 6.87 | 1,052 |
| 2004 | All counties | 5.53 | 5.19 | 5.78 | 3,140 |
| 2004 | Metropolitan | 5.45 | 5.09 | 5.72 | 1,185 |
| 2004 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 5.94 | 5.63 | 6.24 | 903 |
| 2004 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 6.03 | 5.61 | 6.47 | 1,052 |
| 2005 | All counties | 5.10 | 4.81 | 5.35 | 3,133 |
| 2005 | Metropolitan | 5.00 | 4.69 | 5.25 | 1,178 |
| 2005 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 5.63 | 5.28 | 5.93 | 903 |
| 2005 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 5.83 | 5.38 | 6.29 | 1,052 |
| 2006 | All counties | 4.62 | 4.34 | 4.88 | 3,133 |
| 2006 | Metropolitan | 4.53 | 4.22 | 4.77 | 1,178 |
| 2006 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 5.13 | 4.79 | 5.44 | 903 |
| 2006 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 5.35 | 4.89 | 5.83 | 1,052 |
| 2007 | All counties | 4.62 | 4.32 | 4.90 | 3,140 |
| 2007 | Metropolitan | 4.53 | 4.21 | 4.82 | 1,185 |
| 2007 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 5.09 | 4.74 | 5.43 | 903 |
| 2007 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 5.34 | 4.84 | 5.84 | 1,052 |
| 2008 | All counties | 5.78 | 5.34 | 6.22 | 3,140 |
| 2008 | Metropolitan | 5.72 | 5.24 | 6.19 | 1,185 |
| 2008 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 6.08 | 5.62 | 6.51 | 903 |
| 2008 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 6.26 | 5.65 | 6.87 | 1,052 |
| 2009 | All counties | 9.25 | 8.54 | 9.96 | 3,140 |
| 2009 | Metropolitan | 9.18 | 8.42 | 9.92 | 1,185 |
| 2009 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 9.66 | 8.91 | 10.36 | 903 |
| 2009 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 9.62 | 8.65 | 10.55 | 1,052 |
| 2010 | All counties | 9.63 | 8.87 | 10.38 | 3,142 |
| 2010 | Metropolitan | 9.60 | 8.77 | 10.40 | 1,185 |
| 2010 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 9.84 | 9.19 | 10.46 | 903 |
| 2010 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 9.79 | 8.83 | 10.69 | 1,054 |
| 2011 | All counties | 8.95 | 8.24 | 9.68 | 3,142 |
| 2011 | Metropolitan | 8.93 | 8.15 | 9.71 | 1,185 |
| 2011 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 9.08 | 8.48 | 9.64 | 903 |
| 2011 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 9.08 | 8.23 | 9.88 | 1,054 |
| 2012 | All counties | 8.07 | 7.42 | 8.70 | 3,142 |
| 2012 | Metropolitan | 8.05 | 7.33 | 8.72 | 1,185 |
| 2012 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 8.20 | 7.65 | 8.73 | 903 |
| 2012 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 8.19 | 7.39 | 8.95 | 1,054 |
| 2013 | All counties | 7.38 | 6.87 | 7.86 | 3,142 |
| 2013 | Metropolitan | 7.33 | 6.79 | 7.86 | 1,185 |
| 2013 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 7.65 | 7.17 | 8.07 | 903 |
| 2013 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 7.77 | 7.06 | 8.47 | 1,054 |
| 2014 | All counties | 6.17 | 5.76 | 6.58 | 3,142 |
| 2014 | Metropolitan | 6.13 | 5.69 | 6.55 | 1,185 |
| 2014 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 6.37 | 5.99 | 6.74 | 903 |
| 2014 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 6.59 | 5.99 | 7.20 | 1,054 |
| 2015 | All counties | 5.28 | 4.97 | 5.57 | 3,142 |
| 2015 | Metropolitan | 5.22 | 4.88 | 5.53 | 1,185 |
| 2015 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 5.61 | 5.28 | 5.94 | 903 |
| 2015 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 5.85 | 5.36 | 6.35 | 1,054 |
| 2016 | All counties | 4.87 | 4.62 | 5.08 | 3,142 |
| 2016 | Metropolitan | 4.79 | 4.51 | 5.02 | 1,185 |
| 2016 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 5.36 | 5.03 | 5.64 | 903 |
| 2016 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 5.67 | 5.25 | 6.09 | 1,054 |
| 2017 | All counties | 4.36 | 4.13 | 4.53 | 3,142 |
| 2017 | Metropolitan | 4.30 | 4.07 | 4.48 | 1,185 |
| 2017 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 4.69 | 4.38 | 4.96 | 903 |
| 2017 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 4.92 | 4.54 | 5.30 | 1,054 |
| 2018 | All counties | 3.90 | 3.71 | 4.05 | 3,142 |
| 2018 | Metropolitan | 3.84 | 3.65 | 3.99 | 1,185 |
| 2018 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 4.21 | 3.95 | 4.45 | 903 |
| 2018 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 4.39 | 4.05 | 4.75 | 1,054 |
| 2019 | All counties | 3.67 | 3.47 | 3.84 | 3,142 |
| 2019 | Metropolitan | 3.60 | 3.39 | 3.78 | 1,185 |
| 2019 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 4.06 | 3.81 | 4.31 | 903 |
| 2019 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 4.29 | 3.94 | 4.66 | 1,054 |
| 2020 | All counties | 8.07 | 7.42 | 8.66 | 3,143 |
| 2020 | Metropolitan | 8.21 | 7.51 | 8.81 | 1,185 |
| 2020 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 7.26 | 6.86 | 7.63 | 903 |
| 2020 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 6.74 | 6.19 | 7.28 | 1,055 |
| 2021 | All counties | 5.36 | 4.78 | 5.88 | 3,143 |
| 2021 | Metropolitan | 5.43 | 4.80 | 5.98 | 1,185 |
| 2021 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 4.88 | 4.52 | 5.24 | 903 |
| 2021 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 4.69 | 4.33 | 5.07 | 1,055 |
| 2022 | All counties | 3.65 | 3.39 | 3.87 | 3,143 |
| 2022 | Metropolitan | 3.64 | 3.35 | 3.87 | 1,185 |
| 2022 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 3.73 | 3.47 | 3.97 | 903 |
| 2022 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 3.75 | 3.46 | 4.06 | 1,055 |
| 2023 | All counties | 3.64 | 3.33 | 3.92 | 3,143 |
| 2023 | Metropolitan | 3.63 | 3.28 | 3.94 | 1,185 |
| 2023 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 3.66 | 3.43 | 3.88 | 903 |
| 2023 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 3.75 | 3.48 | 4.03 | 1,055 |
| 2024 | All counties | 4.02 | 3.69 | 4.35 | 3,143 |
| 2024 | Metropolitan | 4.03 | 3.67 | 4.38 | 1,185 |
| 2024 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 3.98 | 3.75 | 4.22 | 903 |
| 2024 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 4.07 | 3.77 | 4.40 | 1,055 |

Note: A county type follows the 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Code of the county: codes 1 to 3 are metropolitan, 4 to 7 are nonmetropolitan with an urban population of 5,000 or more, and 8 and 9 are nonmetropolitan with an urban population under 5,000. One classification is applied to every year.

Note: The intervals reflect which counties and states are in each group, not the model error of the county estimates, which LAUS does not publish. The tooltips give the interval for every line.

Note: No annual average is published for 7 Louisiana parishes in 2005 and 2006, which leaves them out of the pooled rates of those two years. Puerto Rico is not included.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, county annual averages, 2000-2024; modeled estimates, pooled with labor-force weights; county types from the USDA 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/unemployment_by_county_type.json

### Table 3. Jobs located in metropolitan counties paid $73,585 a year on average in 2023, against $48,786 in nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none

Average annual pay per job, current dollars, for jobs located in each county and covered by unemployment insurance, 2023, jobs at the workplace

No inline rows: the values of Table 3 are in https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/workplace_pay_map.json.

Note: Pay is total wages divided by average employment for jobs covered by state unemployment insurance. It mixes full-time and part-time jobs, includes bonuses, and leaves out the self-employed and some farm and domestic workers.

Note: Of the 2 gray counties, one has totals withheld by the Bureau to protect an employer's confidentiality and one is not in the file. A withheld cell is missing, never zero.

Note: QCEW codes Connecticut by its legacy counties through 2023, the counties drawn here. Puerto Rico is not drawn. Dollars are current, so this map compares counties within 2023 and not across years.

Note: Totals are full counts from employer reports, so they carry no sampling interval.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, county annual averages, 2023; full counts of covered payroll

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/workplace_pay_map.json

### Table 4. In 2019, 62.4% of the jobs held by residents of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none were in another county, against 44.1% for residents of metropolitan counties

Percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county, pooled over the counties of each type, 2010, 2015 and 2019, jobs counted by home county

| conf_high | conf_low | estimate | jobs | n_counties | series | year |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | ---: |
| 46.89 | 39.37 | 42.95 | 105160058 | 1,171 | Metropolitan | 2010 |
| 50.45 | 46.30 | 48.58 | 13636739 | 894 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 2010 |
| 61.81 | 56.61 | 59.46 | 4091694 | 1,034 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 2010 |
| 47.03 | 39.24 | 42.87 | 115867165 | 1,171 | Metropolitan | 2015 |
| 51.16 | 46.90 | 49.24 | 14121233 | 894 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 2015 |
| 62.95 | 57.67 | 60.51 | 4083810 | 1,034 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 2015 |
| 48.26 | 40.33 | 44.09 | 123293844 | 1,171 | Metropolitan | 2019 |
| 53.45 | 49.13 | 51.46 | 14490434 | 894 | Nonmetropolitan, larger towns | 2019 |
| 64.84 | 59.55 | 62.44 | 4179253 | 1,034 | Nonmetropolitan, smaller towns or none | 2019 |

Note: Alaska and Massachusetts are left out of every year, so every year covers the same states. Alaska has no workplace file for 2019 and its residence table holds 3,090 jobs, against 308,964 in 2015. The Massachusetts workplace file for 2010 is a stub of 2 tracts and 17 jobs, and its residence table holds 151,718 jobs, against 3,330,566 in 2015. Puerto Rico is not in the LODES tables used here.

Note: LODES counts every job, second jobs included, and assigns the workplaces of employers with several sites by a model. A survey of workers gives a lower share (28% of workers traveled to a different county in the 2009-2013 ACS), so the two levels are not comparable.

Source: LEHD LODES origin-destination tables, 2010, 2015 and 2019 (Alaska and Massachusetts left out); jobs-weighted counts with confidentiality noise; county types from the USDA 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/commuting_out_of_county.json

### Table 5. In the fifth of counties with the fewest jobs per resident job, 45.4% of jobs held by residents were in the top earnings band against 39.5% of the jobs located there

Percent of jobs paying more than $3,333 a month, jobs held by a county's residents against jobs located in the county, fifths of counties ranked by jobs located per job held by residents, 2019

| Fifth of counties | Counties | Jobs located per job held by residents, lowest | Jobs located per job held by residents, highest | Top-band share, jobs located (percent) | Top-band share, jobs held by residents (percent) | Jobs held by residents | Jobs located |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Fewest jobs per resident job | 619 | 0.14 | 0.60 | 39.5 | 45.4 | 8,939,569 | 4,609,391 |
| Second fifth | 620 | 0.60 | 0.74 | 41.6 | 46.4 | 15,095,852 | 10,201,971 |
| Middle fifth | 620 | 0.74 | 0.86 | 43.0 | 46.7 | 20,101,609 | 16,046,376 |
| Fourth fifth | 620 | 0.86 | 1.01 | 45.3 | 46.9 | 32,659,196 | 30,931,375 |
| Most jobs per resident job | 620 | 1.01 | 11.24 | 49.8 | 47.8 | 65,464,789 | 80,367,572 |

Note: The same jobs are counted in both tables, once at the home and once at the workplace, so the two shares agree when every county is pooled; they differ in a group of counties because of commuting across the group's boundary.

Note: Counties are ranked on jobs located per job held by residents, a count ratio that does not use earnings, and the fifths hold near-equal numbers of counties, not equal numbers of jobs. The lowest fifth holds 6.3% of jobs held by residents and 3.2% of jobs located, and the highest fifth holds 46.0% and 56.5%. Moving the county at a cut to the next fifth changes any of these shares by up to 0.1 points. The ranges of the ratio are in the table. Earnings bands are fixed in current dollars, so shares are compared within 2019 only.

Note: Alaska (no 2019 workplace file) and Massachusetts (a stub 2010 workplace file) are left out of every LODES figure, so the same states are covered in every year.

Source: LEHD LODES residence and workplace tables, 2019 (Alaska and Massachusetts left out); jobs-weighted counts with confidentiality noise, earnings bands in current dollars

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/top_band_by_jobs_per_resident.json

### Table 6. In 66.0% of counties the jobs held by residents were more often in the top earnings band than the jobs located in the county

Percent of jobs paying more than $3,333 a month, jobs held by a county's residents against jobs located in the county, one dot per county, 2019

No inline rows: the values of Table 6 are in https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/top_band_county_scatter.json.

Note: Counties with fewer than 1,000 jobs in either table are not drawn because noise added for confidentiality makes their shares unreliable; they are in every other figure of the chapter. Alaska and Massachusetts are left out.

Note: Both axes use the same earnings band in current dollars for the same year, so the comparison is between populations (jobs at the home and jobs at the workplace) and not between bands. The tooltip gives the county and the jobs held by residents. Noise in county shares pulls dots apart in both directions, so the share above the diagonal is the figure to read and not the slope of the cloud.

Source: LEHD LODES residence and workplace tables, 2019 (Alaska and Massachusetts left out); full counts of jobs with confidentiality noise, earnings bands in current dollars

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/top_band_county_scatter.json

### Table 7. In the most deprived tenth of tracts, 30.4% of jobs held by residents were in the top earnings band against 60.1% in the least deprived tenth, and unemployment was 8.6% against 4.9%

Five measures of the residents of tracts in the least and the most deprived tenth by Area Deprivation Index rank, percent; the index is built partly from income, employment and vehicle access, so all five gradients are partly mechanical

| least | least_hi | least_lo | measure | most | most_hi | most_lo | tracts_least | tracts_most |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| 4.92 | 5.41 | 4.35 | Unemployment rate (ACS 2019-2023) | 8.65 | 9.05 | 8.25 | 8021 | 8103 |
| 66.12 | 66.72 | 65.45 | Labor force participation (ACS 2019-2023) | 54.82 | 55.27 | 54.35 | 8021 | 8103 |
| 12.02 | 14.28 | 10.11 | Commuting workers with a commute of an hour or more (ACS 2019-2023) | 7.29 | 7.73 | 6.88 | 8021 | 8103 |
| 23.44 | 25.27 | 21.97 | Workers who work from home (ACS 2019-2023) | 5.94 | 6.19 | 5.69 | 8021 | 8103 |
| 60.07 | 63.33 | 57.06 | Jobs held by residents in the top earnings band (LODES 2019) | 30.41 | 30.94 | 29.93 | 8014 | 8103 |

Note: The Area Deprivation Index (rank 1 least deprived, 100 most deprived) averages block-group ranks to tracts without population weights and understates deprivation in high-cost cities. Tenths hold near-equal numbers of the 81,038 tracts with a rank (tied ranks stay together); 1,580 tracts have none.

Note: The ACS rows describe residents: the unemployment rate is a share of the civilian labor force aged 16 and over, participation a share of people aged 16 and over, the commute row a share of workers who commute (workers who do not work from home) and the work-from-home row a share of all workers. The staged ACS file has no margins of error, so the intervals show variation across counties and not the precision of single tracts.

Note: The last row counts jobs held by residents, which LODES places at the worker's home tract. Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico are left out of the whole figure so that one set of tracts is compared; Connecticut tracts are matched through the tract crosswalk.

Source: American Community Survey 2019-2023 tracts, population-weighted, no margins of error; LEHD LODES residence table 2019, jobs-weighted; Area Deprivation Index 2023, national rank

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/tract_measures_by_adi.json

### Table 8. In the most deprived fifth of tracts in metropolitan counties, 43.7% of jobs located there were in the top earnings band against 32.6% of jobs held by the tracts' residents

Percent of jobs paying more than $3,333 a month, jobs held by residents of a tract against jobs located in it, by fifth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank within each county type, 2019

| conf_high | conf_low | estimate | fifth | group | kind | n_tracts |
| ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | --- | --- | ---: |
| 60.46 | 54.48 | 57.50 | 1 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 15,826 |
| 56.54 | 49.97 | 53.25 | 1 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs located in the tract | 15,826 |
| 53.33 | 51.12 | 52.25 | 2 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 15,350 |
| 50.22 | 47.63 | 48.88 | 2 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs located in the tract | 15,350 |
| 47.57 | 45.97 | 46.76 | 3 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 14,289 |
| 45.88 | 44.03 | 44.94 | 3 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs located in the tract | 14,289 |
| 41.50 | 40.41 | 40.94 | 4 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 12,062 |
| 44.35 | 42.48 | 43.44 | 4 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs located in the tract | 12,062 |
| 33.23 | 32.06 | 32.61 | 5 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 9,927 |
| 44.59 | 42.64 | 43.65 | 5 | Metropolitan counties | Jobs located in the tract | 9,927 |
| 44.87 | 41.62 | 43.26 | 1 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 281 |
| 41.93 | 36.76 | 39.27 | 1 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs located in the tract | 281 |
| 46.84 | 43.78 | 45.27 | 2 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 701 |
| 43.21 | 37.96 | 40.49 | 2 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs located in the tract | 701 |
| 45.03 | 43.60 | 44.31 | 3 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 1,626 |
| 42.12 | 39.17 | 40.59 | 3 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs located in the tract | 1,626 |
| 42.01 | 41.22 | 41.62 | 4 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 3,183 |
| 40.59 | 39.09 | 39.84 | 4 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs located in the tract | 3,183 |
| 35.71 | 34.90 | 35.31 | 5 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 4,161 |
| 37.81 | 36.61 | 37.21 | 5 | Nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns | Jobs located in the tract | 4,161 |
| 43.36 | 38.56 | 40.92 | 2 | Nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 84 |
| 39.39 | 31.68 | 35.51 | 2 | Nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | Jobs located in the tract | 84 |
| 42 | 40.01 | 41.03 | 3 | Nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 376 |
| 40.68 | 36.57 | 38.61 | 3 | Nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | Jobs located in the tract | 376 |
| 40.37 | 39.34 | 39.85 | 4 | Nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 1,068 |
| 40.06 | 37.85 | 38.96 | 4 | Nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | Jobs located in the tract | 1,068 |
| 35.85 | 35.08 | 35.47 | 5 | Nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | Jobs held by residents of the tract | 2,077 |
| 35.92 | 34.51 | 35.23 | 5 | Nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | Jobs located in the tract | 2,077 |

Note: Fifths hold near-equal numbers of tracts nationally (tied ranks stay together), so a county type has few tracts in the fifths it rarely contains. A cell with fewer than 30 tracts is not drawn, which leaves out the least deprived fifth of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none.

Note: Jobs located are placed by LODES at the workplace tract and jobs held by residents at the home tract, so the two lines describe different groups of people in the same tracts. 3.1% of jobs located and 0.3% of jobs held by residents are in tracts with no index rank and are not in the figure.

Note: Earnings bands are fixed in current dollars, so shares are compared within 2019 only. County types follow the county of the tract.

Source: LEHD LODES residence and workplace tables, 2019 (Alaska and Massachusetts left out), jobs-weighted; Area Deprivation Index 2023, national rank; county types from the USDA 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes

Data: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/tract_top_band_by_county_type.json

## All estimates

Every fact in facts.json (127), sorted by id.

| Fact id | Value | Unit | Estimand | Population | Period | Interval | n | Weights | Source | Note |
| --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- | --- | --- |
| acs_age | 16 | years of age | lowest age counted in the labor force measures (a definition) | people counted in the ACS labor force measures | 2019-2023 |   |   | none (definition) | American Community Survey |   |
| acs_out_share | 28% | percent of workers who travel to a county other than the one where they live | share of workers who travel to a different county for work, as reported by Census Bureau staff for the 2009-2013 county-to-county commuting flows (McKenzie and Burd, 2015); quoted, not recomputed | workers in the United States | ACS 2009-2013 |   |   | as reported (ACS survey weights) | Published estimates from cited studies | A published estimate, not a result of this build. |
| ak_rac_2015 | 308,964 | jobs | sum of the Alaska residence table | jobs held by residents of Alaska in the LODES residence table | 2015 |   |   | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ak_rac_2019 | 3,090 | jobs | sum of the Alaska residence table; the 2019 workplace file for Alaska is absent, so only jobs outside Alaska are counted | jobs held by residents of Alaska in the LODES residence table | 2019 |   |   | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| band_cut_high | $3,333 | dollars of monthly earnings from one job, current dollars | lower limit of the top of the three LODES earnings bands: a job is in the top band when it pays more than this (a definition) | jobs in the LEHD LODES tables | fixed in every LODES year |   |   | none (definition) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| band_cut_low | $1,250 | dollars of monthly earnings from one job, current dollars | upper limit of the lowest of the three LODES earnings bands (a definition) | jobs in the LEHD LODES tables | fixed in every LODES year |   |   | none (definition) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| c60_least | 12.0% | percent of commuting workers (workers who do not work from home) whose commute takes an hour or more | population-weighted mean of tract values (2019-2023 ACS tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap interval | commuting workers living in tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico in the least deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | ACS 2019-2023 | 95% CI 10.1% to 14.3% | 8,021 tracts | 2019-2023 tract population | American Community Survey |   |
| c60_most | 7.3% | percent of commuting workers (workers who do not work from home) whose commute takes an hour or more | population-weighted mean of tract values (2019-2023 ACS tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap interval | commuting workers living in tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico in the most deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | ACS 2019-2023 | 95% CI 6.9% to 7.7% | 8,103 tracts | 2019-2023 tract population | American Community Survey |   |
| corr_diff | +0.15 | difference of two correlation coefficients | correlation with the workplace share minus correlation with the residence share, from one set of state draws | counties with a published QCEW average pay and at least the minimum number of jobs in both LODES tables (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 0.11 to 0.21 | 2,877 counties | 2020 county population | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| corr_pay_resid | +0.73 | correlation coefficient | population-weighted correlation across counties of QCEW average pay with the top-band share of jobs held by the county's residents (LODES residence table), bootstrap interval over states | counties with a published QCEW average pay and at least the minimum number of jobs in both LODES tables (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 0.69 to 0.77 | 2,877 counties | 2020 county population | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| corr_pay_work | +0.87 | correlation coefficient | population-weighted correlation across counties of QCEW average pay with the top-band share of jobs located in the county (LODES workplace table), bootstrap interval over states | counties with a published QCEW average pay and at least the minimum number of jobs in both LODES tables (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 0.86 to 0.92 | 2,877 counties | 2020 county population | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| cut_shift | 0.1 | percentage points | largest change in any fifth's share of jobs or top-band share when the county at a cut between fifths moves to the next fifth | job shares and top-band shares of the fifths of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   |   | none (full count) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ds_highest_fifth | 2.0 | percentage points of the top-band share, absolute difference | top-band share of jobs held by residents minus that of jobs located, from one set of state draws, absolute value, bootstrap interval over states | jobs in the highest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 1.2 to 2.9 | 620 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ds_lowest_fifth | 5.9 | percentage points of the top-band share, absolute difference | top-band share of jobs held by residents minus that of jobs located, from one set of state draws, absolute value, bootstrap interval over states | jobs in the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 3.2 to 7.8 | 619 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| gap_2019_small | 0.7 | percentage points of the unemployment rate | difference of two pooled rates (nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none minus metropolitan counties) from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | residents of counties of the two types (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2019 | 95% CI 0.4 to 1.0 | 3,142 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| gap_2019_town | 0.5 | percentage points of the unemployment rate | difference of two pooled rates (nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns minus metropolitan counties) from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | residents of counties of the two types (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2019 | 95% CI 0.3 to 0.7 | 3,142 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| gap_2020_small | 1.5 | percentage points of the unemployment rate | difference of two pooled rates (metropolitan counties minus nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none) from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | residents of counties of the two types (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2020 | 95% CI 0.7 to 2.2 | 3,143 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| gap_2020_town | 0.9 | percentage points of the unemployment rate | difference of two pooled rates (metropolitan counties minus nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns) from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | residents of counties of the two types (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2020 | 95% CI 0.4 to 1.5 | 3,143 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| gap_2023_small | −0.1 | percentage points of the unemployment rate | difference of two pooled rates (metropolitan counties minus nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none) from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | residents of counties of the two types (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 | 95% CI −0.5 to 0.2 | 3,143 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| jobs_covered | 148.0 million | jobs | sum of average annual employment over the counties with a published value | jobs located in counties, covered by state unemployment insurance (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| jobs_no_adi | 3.1% | percent of jobs located | jobs located in tracts with no ADI rank, as a share of all jobs located | jobs located in tracts outside Alaska and Massachusetts | LODES 2019 |   |   | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| jobs_od_2019 | 142.0 million | jobs | sum of the origin-destination flows (all jobs) | jobs held by residents of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   |   | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| jobs_share_metro | 88.9% | percent of covered jobs | jobs located in metropolitan counties as a share of jobs located in all counties | jobs located in counties, covered by state unemployment insurance (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| lf_floor | 2,000 | persons in the labor force | labor force below which a county is counted as small (a rule) | counties and county equivalents | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (definition) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| lfp_least | 66.1% | percent of people of working age in the civilian labor force | population-weighted mean of tract values (2019-2023 ACS tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap interval | residents of tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico in the least deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | ACS 2019-2023 | 95% CI 65.4% to 66.7% | 8,021 tracts | 2019-2023 tract population | American Community Survey |   |
| lfp_most | 54.8% | percent of people of working age in the civilian labor force | population-weighted mean of tract values (2019-2023 ACS tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap interval | residents of tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico in the most deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | ACS 2019-2023 | 95% CI 54.3% to 55.3% | 8,103 tracts | 2019-2023 tract population | American Community Survey |   |
| ma_rac_2010 | 151,718 | jobs | sum of the Massachusetts residence table, which counts only jobs located in states that have a workplace table | jobs held by residents of Massachusetts in the LODES residence table | 2010 |   |   | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ma_rac_2015 | 3,330,566 | jobs | sum of the Massachusetts residence table | jobs held by residents of Massachusetts in the LODES residence table | 2015 |   |   | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ma_wac_2010 | 17 | jobs | sum of the Massachusetts workplace table, a stub file | jobs located in Massachusetts in the LODES workplace table | 2010 |   |   | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ma_wac_tracts_2010 | 2 | tracts | count of tracts in the stub file | tracts in the Massachusetts workplace table | 2010 |   |   | none (full count) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| min_jobs_cut | 1,000 | jobs | minimum number of jobs in each of the two tables for a county to enter the scatter plot and the pay correlations (a rule) | counties in the LODES residence and workplace tables | LODES 2019 |   |   | none (definition) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| min_tracts_cell | 30 | tracts | minimum number of tracts for a cell to be drawn (a rule) | cells of county type by fifth of tracts by ADI | LODES 2019 |   |   | none (definition) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| mix_highest_metro | 52.3% | percent of the counties in the fifth | share of the fifth's counties of this county type (full count) | counties in the highest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out), of the type metropolitan counties | 2019 (types from 2023 codes) |   | 620 counties | none (each county counts once) | Rural-Urban Continuum Codes |   |
| mix_lowest_metro | 47.7% | percent of the counties in the fifth | share of the fifth's counties of this county type (full count) | counties in the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out), of the type metropolitan counties | 2019 (types from 2023 codes) |   | 619 counties | none (each county counts once) | Rural-Urban Continuum Codes |   |
| mix_lowest_small | 43.9% | percent of the counties in the fifth | share of the fifth's counties of this county type (full count) | counties in the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out), of the type nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none | 2019 (types from 2023 codes) |   | 619 counties | none (each county counts once) | Rural-Urban Continuum Codes |   |
| n_counties_lodes | 3,099 | counties | count of counties in the comparison | counties in both LODES tables (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   |   | none (full count) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| n_laus_counties | 3,143 | counties | count of counties and county equivalents | counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_laus_pr | 78 | municipios | count of Puerto Rico units that are in the file and not drawn | Puerto Rico municipios in the LAUS file | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_missing_parishes | 7 | parishes | count of parishes with a missing annual average | Louisiana parishes with no published annual average | 2005 and 2006 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_missing_ur | 14 | county-years | county-years with no published annual average (footnote N); they leave the pooled rates of those years | counties in the LAUS file, 2000-2024 | 2005 and 2006 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_nodata_ur | 1 | counties | count of drawn counties that are not in the LAUS file | counties on the map | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_nopay | 2 | counties | count of drawn counties with no value: one withheld and one absent from the file | counties on the map | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| n_pay_counties | 3,141 | counties | count of counties with a published value | counties with a published average pay | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| n_pre_apart | 12 | years | years in which the 95% interval of that difference lies entirely below zero | years from 2000 to 2019 | 2000-2019 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_pre_years | 20 | years | count of years in the comparison of metropolitan counties with nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns | years from 2000 to 2019 | 2000-2019 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_scatter | 2,877 | counties | count of counties in the scatter plot | counties with at least the minimum number of jobs in both tables (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   |   | none (full count) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| n_small_lf | 296 | counties | count of counties with a labor force below the small-county cut | counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_tracts_adi | 81,038 | tracts | count of tracts with a rank | tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico with an ADI rank | ADI 2023, ACS 2019-2023 |   |   | none (full count) | Area Deprivation Index |   |
| n_tracts_no_adi | 1,580 | tracts | count of tracts with no rank (all block groups suppressed) | tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico with no ADI rank | ADI 2023, ACS 2019-2023 |   |   | none (full count) | Area Deprivation Index |   |
| n_ur_high | 6 | counties | count of counties with a rate at or above the high-rate cut | counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| n_withheld | 1 | counties | count of counties whose total wages and employment the Bureau withholds | counties in the QCEW file | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (full count) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| out_all_2010 | 44.1% | percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county | jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2010 | 95% CI 40.8% to 47.6% | 3,099 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_all_2019 | 45.4% | percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county | jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 41.8% to 49.1% | 3,099 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_chg_all | 1.3 | percentage points of the out-of-county share | out-of-county share in 2019 minus the share in 2010, from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 compared with 2010 | 95% CI 0.9 to 1.6 | 3,099 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_chg_metro | 1.1 | percentage points of the out-of-county share | out-of-county share in 2019 minus the share in 2010, from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of metropolitan counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 compared with 2010 | 95% CI 0.8 to 1.5 | 1,171 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_chg_small | 3.0 | percentage points of the out-of-county share | out-of-county share in 2019 minus the share in 2010, from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 compared with 2010 | 95% CI 2.5 to 3.4 | 1,034 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_chg_town | 2.9 | percentage points of the out-of-county share | out-of-county share in 2019 minus the share in 2010, from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 compared with 2010 | 95% CI 2.4 to 3.3 | 894 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_gap_small_metro | 18.4 | percentage points of the out-of-county share | out-of-county share of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none minus that of metropolitan counties, from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of the two types of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 13.7 to 22.0 | 3,099 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_gap_small_town | 11.0 | percentage points of the out-of-county share | out-of-county share of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none minus that of nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns, from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of the two types of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 9.0 to 12.9 | 3,099 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_gap_town_metro | 7.4 | percentage points of the out-of-county share | out-of-county share of nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns minus that of metropolitan counties, from one set of state draws, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of the two types of counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 2.7 to 10.9 | 3,099 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_metro_2010 | 43.0% | percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county | jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of metropolitan counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2010 | 95% CI 39.4% to 46.9% | 1,171 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_metro_2019 | 44.1% | percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county | jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of metropolitan counties (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 40.3% to 48.3% | 1,171 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_small_2010 | 59.5% | percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county | jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2010 | 95% CI 56.6% to 61.8% | 1,034 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_small_2019 | 62.4% | percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county | jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 59.5% to 64.8% | 1,034 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_town_2010 | 48.6% | percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county | jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2010 | 95% CI 46.3% to 50.5% | 894 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| out_town_2019 | 51.5% | percent of jobs held by a county's residents that are located in a different county | jobs located outside the home county summed over counties, divided by jobs held by residents summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 49.1% to 53.4% | 894 counties | jobs held by residents of each county | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| pay_max | $174,694 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | county total wages divided by average employment (the highest county average) | jobs located in Santa Clara County, CA | annual average, 2023 |   | 1,119,710 jobs | none (one county) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_mean | $71,075 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | total wages divided by average employment, summed over counties (full count, no sampling error) | jobs located in counties, covered by state unemployment insurance (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | annual average, 2023 |   | 3,141 counties | jobs located in each county | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_median | $49,668 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | 50th percentile of county average pay, each county counted once | jobs located in counties, covered by state unemployment insurance (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | annual average, 2023 |   | 3,141 counties | none (each county counts once) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_metro | $73,585 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | total wages divided by average employment, summed over the counties of the type (full count, no sampling error) | jobs located in metropolitan counties, covered by state unemployment insurance | annual average, 2023 |   | 1,184 counties | jobs located in each county | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_min | $29,704 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | county total wages divided by average employment (the lowest county average) | jobs located in Worth County, MO | annual average, 2023 |   | 385 jobs | none (one county) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_min_jobs | 385 | jobs | average annual employment of the county | jobs located in Worth County, MO | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (one county) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_p5 | $39,160 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | fifth percentile of county average pay, each county counted once | jobs located in counties, covered by state unemployment insurance (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | annual average, 2023 |   | 3,141 counties | none (each county counts once) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_p95 | $72,089 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | ninety-fifth percentile of county average pay, each county counted once | jobs located in counties, covered by state unemployment insurance (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | annual average, 2023 |   | 3,141 counties | none (each county counts once) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_second | $174,319 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | county total wages divided by average employment (the second highest county average) | jobs located in San Mateo County, CA | annual average, 2023 |   | 420,679 jobs | none (one county) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_small | $48,786 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | total wages divided by average employment, summed over the counties of the type (full count, no sampling error) | jobs located in nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none, covered by state unemployment insurance | annual average, 2023 |   | 1,054 counties | jobs located in each county | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pay_town | $51,618 | dollars of average annual pay per job, current dollars | total wages divided by average employment, summed over the counties of the type (full count, no sampling error) | jobs located in nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns, covered by state unemployment insurance | annual average, 2023 |   | 903 counties | jobs located in each county | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| pct_resid_higher | 66.0% | percent of counties | share of counties (each counted once) in which the top-band share of jobs held by residents exceeds that of jobs located, bootstrap interval over states | counties with at least the minimum number of jobs in both tables (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 63.8% to 68.3% | 2,877 counties | none (each county counts once) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ratio_cut_high | 1.01 | jobs located per job held by residents | smallest ratio in the highest fifth of counties | counties in both LODES tables (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   |   | none (cut point) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ratio_cut_low | 0.60 | jobs located per job held by residents | largest ratio in the lowest fifth of counties | counties in both LODES tables (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   |   | none (cut point) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| res_no_adi | 0.3% | percent of jobs held by residents | jobs held by residents of tracts with no ADI rank, as a share of all such jobs | jobs held by residents of tracts outside Alaska and Massachusetts | LODES 2019 |   |   | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| rs_highest_fifth | 47.8% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the counties of the group, divided by jobs summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of the highest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 46.0% to 49.3% | 620 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| rs_lowest_fifth | 45.4% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the counties of the group, divided by jobs summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents of the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 43.4% to 47.3% | 619 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| sect_local | 32% | percent of county-by-sector cells withheld | cells whose employment and wages the Bureau withholds, as a share of all cells of the ownership | county-by-industry-sector cells of local governments in the QCEW file (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | 2023 |   | 20,766 county-sector cells | none (full count) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| sect_private | 25% | percent of county-by-sector cells withheld | cells whose employment and wages the Bureau withholds, as a share of all cells of the ownership | county-by-industry-sector cells of private employers in the QCEW file (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | 2023 |   | 58,534 county-sector cells | none (full count) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| sect_state | 29% | percent of county-by-sector cells withheld | cells whose employment and wages the Bureau withholds, as a share of all cells of the ownership | county-by-industry-sector cells of state governments in the QCEW file (Puerto Rico and statewide residual rows left out) | 2023 |   | 10,232 county-sector cells | none (full count) | BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages |   |
| share_resid_highest | 46.0% | percent of all jobs held by residents in the counties compared | jobs of the fifth as a share of all such jobs in the counties compared (full count) | jobs held by residents in the highest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   | 620 counties | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| share_resid_lowest | 6.3% | percent of all jobs held by residents in the counties compared | jobs of the fifth as a share of all such jobs in the counties compared (full count) | jobs held by residents in the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   | 619 counties | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| share_work_highest | 56.5% | percent of all jobs located in the counties compared | jobs of the fifth as a share of all such jobs in the counties compared (full count) | jobs located in the highest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   | 620 counties | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| share_work_lowest | 3.2% | percent of all jobs located in the counties compared | jobs of the fifth as a share of all such jobs in the counties compared (full count) | jobs located in the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 |   | 619 counties | none (full count, with confidentiality noise) | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| spread_diff | 7.9 | percentage points of the top-band share | spread across fifths of jobs located minus spread across fifths of jobs held by residents, from one set of state draws | jobs in both tables, highest and lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 5.7 to 9.7 | 3,099 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| spread_resid | 2.4 | percentage points of the top-band share | top-band share in the highest fifth minus that in the lowest fifth, bootstrap interval over states | jobs held by residents in the highest and the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 0.5 to 4.5 | 3,099 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| spread_work | 10.3 | percentage points of the top-band share | top-band share in the highest fifth minus that in the lowest fifth, bootstrap interval over states | jobs located in the highest and the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 8.5 to 12.5 | 3,099 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| tb_gap_metro_most | +11.0 | percentage points of the top-band share, jobs located minus jobs held by residents | top-band share of jobs located minus that of jobs held by residents of the same tracts, from one set of county draws, bootstrap interval over counties | jobs in the most deprived fifth of tracts by ADI rank in metropolitan counties (outside Alaska and Massachusetts) | LODES 2019 | 95% CI 10.1 to 11.9 | 9,927 tracts | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| tb_gap_small_most | −0.2 | percentage points of the top-band share, jobs located minus jobs held by residents | top-band share of jobs located minus that of jobs held by residents of the same tracts, from one set of county draws, bootstrap interval over counties | jobs in the most deprived fifth of tracts by ADI rank in nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none (outside Alaska and Massachusetts) | LODES 2019 | 95% CI −0.8 to 0.3 | 2,077 tracts | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| tb_gap_town_most | +1.9 | percentage points of the top-band share, jobs located minus jobs held by residents | top-band share of jobs located minus that of jobs held by residents of the same tracts, from one set of county draws, bootstrap interval over counties | jobs in the most deprived fifth of tracts by ADI rank in nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns (outside Alaska and Massachusetts) | LODES 2019 | 95% CI 1.4 to 2.4 | 4,161 tracts | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| tb_metro_job_least | 53.3% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the tracts, divided by jobs summed over the same tracts, county-bootstrap interval | jobs located of metropolitan counties in the least deprived fifth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank (outside Alaska and Massachusetts) | LODES 2019 | 95% CI 50.0% to 56.5% | 15,826 tracts | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| tb_metro_job_most | 43.7% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the tracts, divided by jobs summed over the same tracts, county-bootstrap interval | jobs located of metropolitan counties in the most deprived fifth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank (outside Alaska and Massachusetts) | LODES 2019 | 95% CI 42.6% to 44.6% | 9,927 tracts | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| tb_metro_res_least | 57.5% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the tracts, divided by jobs summed over the same tracts, county-bootstrap interval | jobs held by residents of metropolitan counties in the least deprived fifth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank (outside Alaska and Massachusetts) | LODES 2019 | 95% CI 54.5% to 60.5% | 15,826 tracts | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| tb_metro_res_most | 32.6% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the tracts, divided by jobs summed over the same tracts, county-bootstrap interval | jobs held by residents of metropolitan counties in the most deprived fifth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank (outside Alaska and Massachusetts) | LODES 2019 | 95% CI 32.1% to 33.2% | 9,927 tracts | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| top_res_least | 60.1% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the tracts, divided by jobs summed over the same tracts, county-bootstrap interval | jobs held by residents of tracts outside Alaska and Massachusetts in the least deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | LODES 2019 | 95% CI 57.1% to 63.3% | 8,014 tracts | jobs held by residents of each tract | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| top_res_most | 30.4% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the tracts, divided by jobs summed over the same tracts, county-bootstrap interval | jobs held by residents of tracts outside Alaska and Massachusetts in the most deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | LODES 2019 | 95% CI 29.9% to 30.9% | 8,103 tracts | jobs held by residents of each tract | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| town_cut | 5,000 | people in urban areas | urban population that separates the two groups of nonmetropolitan counties (a definition) | counties and county equivalents | 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Code |   |   | none (definition) | Rural-Urban Continuum Codes |   |
| ur_all_2019 | 3.7% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2019 | 95% CI 3.5% to 3.8% | 3,142 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_all_2020 | 8.1% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2020 | 95% CI 7.4% to 8.7% | 3,143 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_cut_high | 10% | percent of the civilian labor force | rate at or above which a county is counted in the high group of the map (a rule) | counties and county equivalents | annual average, 2023 |   |   | none (definition) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_max | 17.6% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | published county estimate (modeled; the county file carries no margin of error) | residents of Imperial County, CA | annual average, 2023 |   | 71,647 persons in the labor force | none (one county) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_median_2023 | 3.4% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | 50th percentile of county rates, each county counted once | residents of counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 |   | 3,143 counties | none (each county counts once) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_metro_2019 | 3.6% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of metropolitan counties (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2019 | 95% CI 3.4% to 3.8% | 1,185 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_metro_2020 | 8.2% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of metropolitan counties (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2020 | 95% CI 7.5% to 8.8% | 1,185 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_metro_2023 | 3.6% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of metropolitan counties (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 | 95% CI 3.3% to 3.9% | 1,185 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_p5_2023 | 2.1% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | fifth percentile of county rates, each county counted once | residents of counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 |   | 3,143 counties | none (each county counts once) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_p95_2023 | 5.6% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | ninety-fifth percentile of county rates, each county counted once | residents of counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 |   | 3,143 counties | none (each county counts once) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_pooled_2023 | 3.6% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of counties and county equivalents in the LAUS file (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 | 95% CI 3.3% to 3.9% | 3,143 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_second | 14.8% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | published county estimate (modeled; the county file carries no margin of error) | residents of Kusilvak Census Area, AK | annual average, 2023 |   | 2,326 persons in the labor force | none (one county) | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_small_2019 | 4.3% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2019 | 95% CI 3.9% to 4.7% | 1,054 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_small_2020 | 6.7% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2020 | 95% CI 6.2% to 7.3% | 1,055 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_small_2023 | 3.8% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 | 95% CI 3.5% to 4.0% | 1,055 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_town_2019 | 4.1% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2019 | 95% CI 3.8% to 4.3% | 903 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_town_2020 | 7.3% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2020 | 95% CI 6.9% to 7.6% | 903 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_town_2023 | 3.7% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | unemployed residents summed over the counties, divided by the labor force summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | residents of nonmetropolitan counties with larger towns (Puerto Rico left out) | annual average, 2023 | 95% CI 3.4% to 3.9% | 903 counties | labor force of each county | BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics |   |
| ur_tract_least | 4.9% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | population-weighted mean of tract values (2019-2023 ACS tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap interval | residents of tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico in the least deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | ACS 2019-2023 | 95% CI 4.3% to 5.4% | 8,021 tracts | 2019-2023 tract population | American Community Survey |   |
| ur_tract_most | 8.6% | percent of the civilian labor force that is unemployed | population-weighted mean of tract values (2019-2023 ACS tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap interval | residents of tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico in the most deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | ACS 2019-2023 | 95% CI 8.2% to 9.0% | 8,103 tracts | 2019-2023 tract population | American Community Survey |   |
| wfh_least | 23.4% | percent of workers who work from home | population-weighted mean of tract values (2019-2023 ACS tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap interval | workers living in tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico in the least deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | ACS 2019-2023 | 95% CI 22.0% to 25.3% | 8,021 tracts | 2019-2023 tract population | American Community Survey |   |
| wfh_most | 5.9% | percent of workers who work from home | population-weighted mean of tract values (2019-2023 ACS tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap interval | workers living in tracts outside Alaska, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico in the most deprived tenth of tracts by Area Deprivation Index rank | ACS 2019-2023 | 95% CI 5.7% to 6.2% | 8,103 tracts | 2019-2023 tract population | American Community Survey |   |
| ws_highest_fifth | 49.8% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the counties of the group, divided by jobs summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs located in the highest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 47.8% to 51.5% | 620 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |
| ws_lowest_fifth | 39.5% | percent of jobs paying more than the top-band cut (monthly earnings from the job) | jobs in the top earnings band summed over the counties of the group, divided by jobs summed over the same counties, bootstrap interval over states | jobs located in the lowest fifth of counties by jobs located per job held by residents (Alaska and Massachusetts left out) | 2019 | 95% CI 36.7% to 42.1% | 619 counties | jobs in each table | LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics |   |

## Definitions

- Ecological inference: Drawing conclusions about individuals from data about places or groups. A pattern across counties need not hold for the people inside them.
- Census tract: A small area drawn by the Census Bureau to stand in for a neighborhood. Boundaries are redrawn after each decennial census.
- Area Deprivation Index (ADI): A score that ranks neighborhoods by income, education, employment and housing conditions drawn from the American Community Survey. In this book a higher national percentile means a more deprived neighborhood.

## Methods

This chapter compares where residents live with where jobs are, using residents (LAUS, the ACS and the LODES residence table), workplaces (QCEW and the LODES workplace table) and the LODES flows between home county and work county. LODES counts jobs, not people, and its earnings come in three fixed bands in current dollars, so shares are compared within one year. Alaska and Massachusetts are left out of every LODES figure because a workplace file is absent or a stub, and counties enter the scatter and correlations only with enough jobs in each table.

### Residents, workplaces and flows

Three populations are kept apart. Residents are counted where they live (LAUS, the ACS, and the LODES residence table, which places a job at the worker's home). Workplaces are counted where the job is (QCEW and the LODES workplace table). Flows are the LODES origin-destination pairs of home county and work county.

LODES counts jobs, not people: its job is a worker-employer match with positive earnings in the second quarter and the quarter before, and a worker with two jobs is counted twice.

LODES earnings come in three fixed bands of monthly earnings in current dollars (up to $1,250, $1,251 to $3,333, above $3,333); 'top band' means above $3,333. Because the bands do not move with prices, shares are compared within one year.

Explains Table 4.

### Which states and years LODES covers

LODES scope: a state-year is incomplete when its workplace table is absent or holds under half of its residence-table jobs (found from the jobs, since a stub file counts as a file).

Alaska (no 2019 workplace file) and Massachusetts (a stub workplace file for 2010, with 17 jobs) are left out of every LODES figure, so 2010, 2015 and 2019 cover the same states; 2019 is used for residents against workplaces, and 2022 is not used because Alaska and Michigan lack workplace files.

### County types and how rates and pay are measured

County types follow the 2023 USDA Rural-Urban Continuum Code of the county: 1 to 3 metropolitan, 4 to 7 nonmetropolitan with an urban population of 5,000 or more, 8 and 9 nonmetropolitan with an urban population under 5,000. Connecticut's legacy counties (used by QCEW to 2023 and by LODES) take the type of the planning region that holds most of their population; the retired Alaska codes of LAUS take the type of their successors.

LAUS pooled rates are unemployed residents over labor force summed over counties, with Puerto Rico left out; county distributions count each county once. The 7 Louisiana parishes without an annual average in 2005 and 2006 leave those two years.

QCEW pay is total wages over average employment; a county whose totals the Bureau withholds is missing, never zero, and is left out.

Explains Table 2, Table 1 and Table 3.

### Weights, fifths and tenths

County correlations are weighted by 2020 county population (ERS file). Tract rows weight ACS measures by tract population and LODES shares by jobs.

County fifths hold near-equal numbers of counties (they differ by at most one), tract fifths and tenths near-equal numbers of tracts (tied ADI ranks stay together). Cuts: counties enter the scatter and correlations with at least 1,000 jobs in each table; a tract cell is drawn with at least 30 tracts.

Explains Table 5, Table 6, Table 7 and Table 8.

### How uncertainty is measured

Intervals are 95% percentile intervals from 2,000 draws of whole units with replacement (seed 12345): states for county figures, because counties in a state share policies and labor markets, and counties for tract figures.

A difference between two pooled estimates uses one set of draws.

## What these data cannot show

All the patterns here are descriptions of counties and tracts. The pooled rate of a county type, the share of jobs in the top band for a group of counties and the gradient across groups of tracts say nothing certain about any worker.

Unemployment and pay come from different groups. LAUS and the ACS count residents, QCEW counts jobs located in a county, and LODES counts jobs at either end of the commute, so no figure here gives the pay of a county's residents in dollars. LODES shows only three bands. A fixed band in current dollars holds more jobs each year as prices and pay rise, so the shares apply to 2019 and say nothing about change over time. The same dollar cut also buys different amounts in different places, so top-band shares are not comparisons of purchasing power. Counting jobs and not people means a worker with two jobs is counted once for each, and noise added for confidentiality makes the shares of small counties and tracts imprecise.

The county unemployment estimates are modeled, and the county file carries no margin of error. The intervals here reflect which places are in each group, and a high rate in a county with a small labor force can rest on few people. Connecticut is drawn as its legacy counties, and the unemployment values there are spread from planning regions by population, so they are approximate. Puerto Rico's 78 municipios are in the LAUS file and are not drawn. The ACS tract file has no margins of error. A cell of county type by fifth of tracts is drawn only with at least 30 tracts, which leaves out the least deprived fifth of the nonmetropolitan counties with smaller towns or none. The ADI averages block-group ranks without population weights, leaves 1,580 tracts without a rank, and understates deprivation in high-cost cities. Jobs in tracts with no rank are left out of the tract figures: 3.1% of jobs located and 0.3% of jobs held by residents. A tract has no rank when every block group in it is suppressed, for example for group quarters or small populations.

LODES is incomplete for some state-years, and the residence table is almost empty where a state has no workplace table or only a stub. Alaska has no workplace file for 2019, and its residence table holds 3,090 jobs for that year against 308,964 in 2015. The Massachusetts workplace file for 2010 is a stub of 2 tracts and 17 jobs, and its residence table holds 151,718 jobs against 3,330,566 in 2015. A stub reads as a complete file unless the jobs are compared, so the build compares workplace jobs with residence jobs. Alaska and Massachusetts are left out of every LODES figure, so every year of the commuting trend covers the same states. The 2022 files lack Alaska and Michigan, so 2019 is the year used for residents against workplaces. Puerto Rico is not drawn and is not in the LODES tables used here.

The comparison of residents with workplaces is for counties and tracts. It cannot say who holds the better-paid jobs in a deprived neighborhood, whether commuting costs or hiring practices keep residents from them, or how many workers would take them if they could.

## References

1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2018). Local Area Unemployment Statistics: Calculation. BLS Handbook of Methods (page last modified January 9, 2018). https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/lau/calculation.htm
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026). Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages: Concepts. BLS Handbook of Methods (page last modified August 31, 2026). https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cew/concepts.htm
3. U.S. Census Bureau, Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program (2025). LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) Dataset Structure, Format Version 8.4. U.S. Census Bureau technical documentation (revised December 3, 2025). https://lehd.ces.census.gov/data/lodes/LODES8/LODESTechDoc8.4.pdf
4. U.S. Census Bureau, Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program (2025). OnTheMap: Data Overview (LODES Version 8). U.S. Census Bureau technical documentation (revised December 2, 2025). https://lehd.ces.census.gov/doc/help/onthemap/OnTheMapDataOverview.pdf
5. Kind, Amy J. H.; Buckingham, William R. (2018). Making Neighborhood-Disadvantage Metrics Accessible: The Neighborhood Atlas. New England Journal of Medicine 378(26): 2456-2458. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1802313
6. McKenzie, Brian; Burd, Charlynn (2015). Where Do All Those Commuters Come From? Census Bureau Releases New Information on County-to-County Commuting Flows. U.S. Census Bureau, Random Samplings blog (August 13, 2015). https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2015/08/where-do-all-those-commuters-come-from-census-bureau-releases-new-information-on-county-to-county-commuting-flows.html
7. Kain, John F. (1968). Housing Segregation, Negro Employment, and Metropolitan Decentralization. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 82(2): 175-197. https://doi.org/10.2307/1885893

## Provenance

- Pipeline version: 0.1.0
- Build script: book2/chapters/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/build.py (sha256 f00cafe2fed8abc3bed1fc6041d17b3d0b42918528b3d6c3238b75014c999a13)
- Built on: 2026-10-09
- Site commit: c2b1ff3309cb4a10833f884da91ac0057a66ad0a

Inputs:

| File | Size (bytes) | SHA-256, first 1 MB | SHA-256, last 1 MB |
| --- | ---: | --- | --- |
| book2/chapters/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/analysis.py | 27,069 | dd0dd2d305b58c166b0fcfbc42df729b709db23ab7b52799634511e79e7b0879 | dd0dd2d305b58c166b0fcfbc42df729b709db23ab7b52799634511e79e7b0879 |
| book2/chapters/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/loaders.py | 17,075 | 4cf5e816ea25e48714e6059fcf69151891b70612395326a196814d787506f667 | 4cf5e816ea25e48714e6059fcf69151891b70612395326a196814d787506f667 |
| data/analytic/tract_atlas.parquet | 39,659,925 | 29d5e4d943552d54aeb6ba92aadc939d9bd15bdea553c78357dbd516757be627 | 1e10d1ecf722340f23ee2212d4999a90250f85b65fa89b39e32db06d9472e22e |
| data/staged/crosswalks/ct_old_county_to_planning_region.parquet | 5,797 | 5fb0d280ff6c9a9f160af7f03934db4682efc3c5fda11ae27b7f614d6ad664bb | 5fb0d280ff6c9a9f160af7f03934db4682efc3c5fda11ae27b7f614d6ad664bb |
| data/staged/crosswalks/ct_tract2020_to_old_county.parquet | 15,842 | 961ef39f31596ef65fca2c67d5f2f63e533c5dc9b49745d3bb6437844e4b831d | 961ef39f31596ef65fca2c67d5f2f63e533c5dc9b49745d3bb6437844e4b831d |
| data/staged/crosswalks/ers_rucc_county_2023.parquet | 67,278 | ad01d36a53664a2bfafbcbebb0f5a921f5b81122ffa80cf96333db23b41c191e | ad01d36a53664a2bfafbcbebb0f5a921f5b81122ffa80cf96333db23b41c191e |
| data/staged/employment/bls_laus_county_annual_1990_2024.parquet | 1,355,480 | 5e2e296cc88984e2a157354b38f72e229d8c4ae74f589276d868ad8f14ce44d0 | 334ac972a9bf6b95a0d40e17bb9c695fa175310f2851152da935c59647c77d05 |
| data/staged/employment/bls_qcew_county_annual_1990_2024.parquet | 52,543,256 | 6fba69010f08637b38b2389e191170157a54601021b01a0692c605568fcf4ce1 | 970774e9a6fc43395a122dc270d1d49544056d856c855d23c724724e01b2dde4 |
| data/staged/employment/lodes_od_county_2002_2022.parquet | 36,476,635 | 674aafe40c1b660871291bd02b3ba21e8f0eac1c242b10726e7d51da70941aed | 49d7822b57a1a3bad50d178502a1677e5da5be9dabd6cc0bc538299c9fc98f5f |
| data/staged/employment/lodes_rac_tract2020_2002_2022.parquet | 15,110,704 | 256550e6cc299be7d1646dc9b392f528f947d98f8db5bf5693db11b351d851d5 | 4eafb002800801098de0a90deee8d4f9193a3c3606d702a68fc71f26a10ed2d7 |
| data/staged/employment/lodes_wac_tract2020_2002_2022.parquet | 15,493,609 | 6e3259f5450ba7ce2bf00f801fc7ff956f58911d962fd4da4371f4e6fbdc2ddd | 9ee1d087319d331bd898879656740e0edd6bb05784c454362c929c70faef9220 |

Outputs:

| File | SHA-256 |
| --- | --- |
| facts.json | b01160ee33ee4372a0cbc2dc3dc12c8465e8ace69f89f8e9feba2af810bbac6c |
| figures/commuting_out_of_county.json | 683c4d5b93aa6c11b37b3545ef09e14e5c10587728ef42e1f6ce39c3fb48266e |
| figures/top_band_by_jobs_per_resident.json | fda23651a58c298548ae75c9c35f1c795f75727d60c9f71f8b9c4cf17bb1186a |
| figures/top_band_county_scatter.json | bf062a2860940c5671c5246de9835668a91036ab52b6c31d3ffb40503cdfa916 |
| figures/tract_measures_by_adi.json | 8abafde63d94e7e29b72320f5ebf2d1eaefc2bd3e2e8dce3101a2c97534f09d9 |
| figures/tract_top_band_by_county_type.json | 415f0fb007c61369c5245eb50043f20867b85b34f9c4c5bc9bead0a3d0626f4c |
| figures/unemployment_by_county_type.json | d9250bf1f40af7ecd1a42f0b13953847121c63093481153712212a8709f951b4 |
| figures/unemployment_map.json | 80468b06f812f8c4dfcfc20edf92719dac336610e429c75499d9e8d577326fed |
| figures/workplace_pay_map.json | 084e4bd75821b64516a1737e25f733b7917a4eb085445269c53475625ea2f3c7 |
| meta.json | cbe4425280fbe28b4a3c30dcf71263ffdd79ce91c54a09618ff4777859f24b4a |
| public/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/top_band_county_scatter.json | b1bd58ca09f35430d4c488fb8a3a4eec982cdb450dd12243a809141afe92fe41 |
| public/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/unemployment_map.json | 0fa4b43c602e0e8b2d5864f3fc623153267425458b18c3db3de5eca4ed1c4f11 |
| public/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/workplace_pay_map.json | 9c4aa13c9cf120169ba7d20856beabfbf0ed90adaf5857b9415e2d43a8137202 |
| refs.json | 94c0fb63d39904d544ccb6a362c95fd2cabcfbe5946e751cd9e095ec12ac1704 |

## Machine formats

- Report (HTML): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/report
- Report (Markdown): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/report.md
- Every estimate (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/facts.json
- Table 1, figure "unemployment_map" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/unemployment_map.json
- Table 2, figure "unemployment_by_county_type" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/unemployment_by_county_type.json
- Table 3, figure "workplace_pay_map" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/workplace_pay_map.json
- Table 4, figure "commuting_out_of_county" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/commuting_out_of_county.json
- Table 5, figure "top_band_by_jobs_per_resident" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/top_band_by_jobs_per_resident.json
- Table 6, figure "top_band_county_scatter" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/top_band_county_scatter.json
- Table 7, figure "tract_measures_by_adi" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/tract_measures_by_adi.json
- Table 8, figure "tract_top_band_by_county_type" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/figures/tract_top_band_by_county_type.json
- Payload of "unemployment_map" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/unemployment_map.json
- Payload of "workplace_pay_map" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/workplace_pay_map.json
- Payload of "top_band_county_scatter" (JSON): https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/data/work-wages-and-access-to-jobs/top_band_county_scatter.json
- Index of every report: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/llms.txt; all reports in one file: https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/llms-full.txt