June 2014 Labor Market Profile

From the NYS Department of Labor...

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Regional Income Variations By Race, Sex and Education Levels

Recently there have been several news articles locally and nationally drawing attention to the variations in income and employment between minorities and non-minorities. Taking a quick look at the regional data for Herkimer and Oneida Counties in the PUMS files, some interesting numbers can be found. Below is a chart showing the mean income over the last 12 months when respondents were surveyed through the American Communities Survey. These data are part of the ACS Five Year estimates for 2012.

As seen below, white males make the most when compared to their male counterparts among blacks, Asians and Hispanics. While white females generally make more annually than do their black cohorts, Asian and Hispanic females appear to generally average more income than do white females.

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The one thing that clearly stands out when looking at that graphic, as well as the table below, is how poorly black males and females perform financially compared to their cohorts, regardless of their educational levels. Black men and women are consistently paid less than almost every other similarly educated group. The table below shows the overall ranking of each of the 32 groups examined, and provides some break out of women, blacks, Asians and Hispanics for comparison purposes.

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Herkimer and Oneida Counties Domestic Violence Data: 2013

Each September the National Census of Domestic Violence Services is conducted. On September 17, 2013, 74 out of 92 (80%) identified local domestic violence programs in New York participated in the 2013 census.

You can find a summary of the New York State responses by clicking here.

Below are 2013 data from the Department of Criminal Justice Services for both Herkimer and Oneida Counties, broken down by reporting agency. Note that not all agencies reported incidents as domestic violence – for example the Herkimer PD reported no data on domestic violence. 

SAM I Am: Student Achievement Measures and Post-Secondary Graduation Rates

Ever wonder how long it takes to graduate college?  Or better yet, what percent of students who start at a particular college end up graduating from there?

Well the Student Achievement Measure (SAM) tracks student movement across post-secondary institutions to provide a more complete picture of undergraduate student progress and completion within the higher education system. Usual measures of student progress and completion, including government-led efforts, usually underreport student achievement because they do not account for an increasingly mobile student population. SAM is an alternative to the federal graduation rate, which is limited to tracking the completion of first-time, full-time students at one institution. 

Nationally, more than one in five students who complete a degree do so at an institution other than the one where they started, according to a recent study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Yet the typical method for calculating graduation rates, as stipulated by federal legislation, counts only those students who enroll full-time and then start and finish at their first college or university. SAM better accounts for the success of these students.

 

There are two models included in SAM, one for students enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs and one for students enrolled in associate’s degree or certificate programs. The associate's model provide the following for both full time and part time students: 

• The percent that graduated within 6 years of first enrolling in the initial institution;
• The percent that are still enrolled in the initial institution after 6 years;
• The percent that have transferred to a different institution;
• The percent whose current status is unknown.

The bachelor's model provides slightly more information:

• The percent that graduated within 6 years of first enrolling in the initial institution;
• The percent that are still enrolled in the initial institution after 6 years;
• The percent that have transferred to,  and graduated from, a different institution;
• The percent that have transferred to,  and still enrolled at, a different institution;
• The percent whose current status is unknown.

 Below is a listing of colleges that participate in the program in New York State. The institutions shaded in green have active files reviewable by visiting the SAM Participants page and selecting New York State and then clicking on the college name (only those with hyperlinks have participated long enough to have useable data).

When the Empty Nest Isn’t – A Regional Look at Millennials Who Remain At Home After the College Years

A recent request for data got me thinking about Generation Y, or the Millennials, and their role as fillers of an otherwise empty nest for their parents. As a matter of definition, Millennials are those born post-1980 and prior to the year 2000. For my purposes here I was really only interested in those that would normally be assumed to be post-college age. In other words, age 24 and older. In addition, I wanted to narrow this group down further to only those that presently live in their parents (or step-parents) home.

To start, more than 5,000 of the almost 37,000 Millennials between the ages of 24 and 34 who presently live in Herkimer and Oneida Counties have remained in their parents' homes. This is based on the 2012 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) of the 2012 ACS for the two main PUMS areas covering the majority of our region. Of the 5,149 such “Millennial Nesters” identified in the PUMS, the majority are males (62%).

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Most “Nesters” are under the age of 30 than over it; about seven out of ten members of the targeted sample is between the ages of 24 and 29 years old. The vast majority are not currently attending school (84%), although about 12% are taking undergraduate courses, and another 4% are doing graduate work.

About 40% of “Nesters” have only a high school education or less. Around 30% have some sort of college degree – 11% an associate’s degree, 16% a bachelor’s degree, and 4% have advanced degrees.

Most “Nesters” have jobs – about 75% of this population are currently employed. Of the remaining quarter, 10% are unemployed while about 15% are technically “not in the labor force”, which includes those going to school, as well as those not pursuing work for other reasons.

Some of the Millennials who remain in their parents’ homes may be there as a result of marriages gone bad. One in ten (10%) of all “Nesters” are currently either divorced or separated. Another 4% are still married and assumedly with their spouse in their parents’ domicile.

So on the surface these Millennial Nesters appear to be mostly males, under the age of 30, many of whom have college degrees and most of whom have jobs. It is worth looking a bit closer however, particularly at differences between the sexes and among those that have those college degrees.

When it comes to male and female Nesters, an identical percentage of both groups are not currently attending school (84%). However, among the 16% of Nesters attending school but still living at home, almost all of the males (14%) are taking undergraduate courses; very few males are living at home while pursuing a graduate degree. In comparison, half of the females attending school while still living in their parents home (8%) are enrolled in graduate course work. This might make some sense given that females living at home are generally older than their male counterparts - females were almost twice as likely to be age 30 or older compared to males in this sample.

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Almost half (44%) of all males only had a high school diploma (or less) among Nesters. In comparison about a third of all females (34%) had similar levels of education.

In terms of work, more than a quarter (27%) of all male Nesters were not working. Some were unemployed while others were not in the labor force, meaning that they were not seeking employment for any number of reasons. About 21% of the females living at home among Millennials were currently not working.

As noted above, some of the Millennial Nesters have actually gotten married and returned to (or perhaps never left) the nest. Females were far more likely to have been in this situation than males. While only about 4% of Nesters of both sexes indicate that they are presently married, 21% of females said that they were either divorced or currently separated from their spouse while still living at home with their parents. Only about 4% of males said that they were either currently divorced or separated. 

In comparing those Nesters who have at least an Associate's degree or higher to those with no college degree (but perhaps some college course work) those with college degrees were more likely to be employed than those without a degree (81% versus 73%).

When it comes to ever having been married (either currently married or currently separated or divorced) Nesters without a college degree were more than twice as likely to have ever entered into matrimony. Around 17% of these less educated Nesters have been married and still live at home; only about 8% of Nesters with an Associate's degree or higher were living in the parents' homes while either presently married or having been married in the past.

Females were more likely to have gotten some sort of college degree than their male counterparts. Thirty-five percent (35%) of females who still lived at home with their parents had a college degree; around 28% of males had an Associate's degree or higher.

Probably one of the most interesting, and maybe concerning, pieces found in the data was the percentage of Millennial Nesters who are doing nothing: they are not taking college courses, they are not employed or they are not part of the work force due to other reasons.

Almost one out of five Nesters (19.4%) are doing nothing at the present moment. As the graph below points out, most are young males without any type of college degree. Compared to the general population of Nesters, a similar number said that they had ever been married.

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ZIP Code Business Patterns

Most of you may already be familiar with County Business Pattern data from the Census Bureau. County Business Patterns (CBP) is an annual series that provides economic data by industry down to the county level. This series includes the number of establishments, employment during the week of March 12, first quarter payroll, and annual payroll. This data is useful for studying the economic activity of small areas; analyzing economic changes over time; and as a benchmark for other statistical series, surveys, and databases between economic censuses. Businesses use the data for analyzing market potential, measuring the effectiveness of sales and advertising programs, setting sales quotas, and developing budgets. Government agencies use the data for administration and planning.

Well this data is also available on a ZIP code basis as well. If you click this link to the CB County Business Pattern page you'll also see the area for accessing ZIP code level data:

Once you enter a ZIP code and click go, you will then be at a page full of data for the area - for example here is the headers for the Herkimer 13350 ZIP:

Note that once there you can change the ZIP Code or the year you want to see ! So if ZIP code data works better for you when it comes to business activity data, there's now an easy way to get to it !