Miami-Dade County Economic Data Snapshot

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
As part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, BEA produces economic accounts statistics that enable government and business decision-makers, researchers, and the American public to follow and understand the performance of the Nation's economy.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Unit of the United States Department of Labor. BLS is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System.

Gross Regional Product (GRP)
The GDP for any region smaller than the United States. GRP measures the final market value of all goods and services produced in the region of study. GRP equals the sum of total industry earnings, taxes on production and imports, and profits, minus subsidies (GRP = earnings + TPI + profits – subsidies).

Industry wages vs occupation wages
Industry wages and occupation wages are estimated via separate data sets; often the time periods being reported do not align, and wages are defined slightly differently in the two systems (for example, certain bonuses are included in the industry wages but not the occupation wages). It is therefore common that estimates of the average industry wages and average occupation wages in a region do not match exactly.

Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS)
Monthly BLS survey measuring household employment that determines size of labor force and unemployment rate.

Location quotient (LQ)
Quantifies how concentrated a particular industry is in a region in comparison with the nation. It is the percentage of jobs in one region (Miami-Dade County) divided by the percentage of jobs nationally. For example, if the leather products manufacturing industry accounts for 10% of jobs in an area but 1% of jobs nationally, then the area’s leather-producing industry has an LQ of 10. Thus, leather manufacturing accounts for a larger than average “share” of total jobs— the share is ten times larger than normal.

Manufacturing
The making of articles on a large-scale using machinery; industrial production. The transformation or assembly of raw materials and components into new products.

National Council for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. IPEDS is a system of interrelated surveys conducted annually by NCES that measures institution-level college completion rates.

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
Used to classify business establishments according to the type of economic activity. The NAICS Code comprises six levels, from the “all industry” level to the 6-digit level. The first two digits define the top-level category, known as the “sector,” which is the level used in this dashboard.

Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)
Shows employment and wages by industry and ownership type at the state, regional, county, and municipal level. QCEW measures gross job gains and losses at establishments and tracks changes in employment at the establishment level, including openings, closings, expansions, and contractions.

Standard Occupational Classification system (SOC)
Used to classify workers into occupational categories. All workers are classified into one of over 804 occupations according to their occupational definition. To facilitate classification, occupations are combined to form 22 major groups, 95 minor groups, and 452 occupation groups. Each occupation group includes detailed occupations requiring similar job duties, skills, education, or experience.

U.S. Census Population Estimates Program
The Census Population Estimates Program produces estimates of the population of the United States and sub-areas. Lightcast uses the latest U.S. Decennial Census population figures as a base, and estimates population by modeling estimated births, deaths, and migration. Lightcast uses Population Estimates nearly unchanged in the years for which they are available as the basis for demographics counts for the nation, states, and counties.