Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Multiple jobholding in states in 2012

The annual average multiple-jobholding rate for the United States was 4.9 percent in 2012, although rates varied by state.

In 2012, South Dakota recorded the highest multiple-jobholding rate of any state, 9.5 percent, followed by Vermont, 8.6 percent, and Nebraska, 8.5 percent.1 Four additional states had multiple-jobholding rates of 8.0 percent or above. Most of the states with high multiple-jobholding rates in 2012 have had consistently high rates over the time span during which estimates have been available. Florida had the lowest multiple-jobholding rate of any state in 2012, 3.4 percent. Four other states recorded rates below 4.0 percent. The annual average multiple-jobholding rate for the United States was 4.9 percent in 2012, unchanged from 2011 and 2010. No state had a statistically significant over-the-year change in its multiple-jobholding rate.

More from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Air Pollution in USA: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map

The pollution indices and color codes available on this web site follow the EPA graduation.

Also available: maps for selected cities in Asia: China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Mongolia, Vietnam, Israel; Australia; the Americas: Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile; Europe: France, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Austria, Cyprus, Poland, Belgium, Netherland, Spain, United Kingdom, Denmark, Lithuania, Hungary, Russia.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Find information about what's new on American FactFinder

Can't keep track of what new information is available on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder portal? Go to NEWS AND NOTES. You'll see:

Dec 17, 2013
The 2008-2012 American Community Survey 5-year estimates are now available for every state, county, city, town, place, American Indian Area, Alaska Native Area, and Hawaiian Home Land, as well as for census tracts. Block group estimates are available only in the ACS Summary File. This is the first 5-year data release to include health insurance coverage, disability, marital history, and veterans' service-connected disability status and ratings.

Sep 26, 2013
Data from the 2012 Census of Governments: Organization are now available. The data include detailed information about the number and types of governments that exist, including school districts and special districts. Statistics are shown at the national level, for individual states, and for county-level areas. More information on the 2012 Census of Governments, including other data products, is available at http://www.census.gov/govs/cog2012/.

And MUCH MORE.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

The 50 Equal United States of America

Here's a cool map from artist and urban planner Neil Freeman, who engaged in a thought experiment to rectify a serious problem with the electoral college: namely, that California has 66 times the population of Wyoming but only 18 times the electoral votes. Of course, this size disparity is an even bigger problem in the Senate, though Freeman's radical plan would remedy both—by redrawing the 50 states to make them all equipopulous.

You'll definitely want to click through to Freeman's site to see his impressive full-size map (and there's an even more detailed version that you can buy in poster form). Freeman also explains how he came up with these states.

More from the Daily Kos.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

A Christmas Manners Quiz by Delia Ephron

YOU arrive for Christmas dinner. Your mother has left your father for a woman and you are meeting her for the first time. What do you do?

Your Uncle Eric loves Fox News. Your sister Jen listens only to NPR. Which of these are appropriate dinner table conversations?

Your niece Emily gets one temporary job after another, but the minute the company has to hire her permanently and give her benefits they fire her. What do you say to her?

Answers to these and other tricky questions at the New York Times.

Monday, December 23, 2013

How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk

What does the way you speak say about where you’re from?

Click and answer all the questions to see your personal dialect map from the New York Times.

(I'm most like someone from Yonkers, NY; Newark/Paterson, NJ; and Tulsa, OK!)

At this writing, the quiz may be slow to generate the map because of great demand!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Americans Waged War Against the Giving of Useless Xmas Gifts...in 1912

Every year around this time, amid the dull din of a hurried holiday rush, it's not uncommon to hear shoppers bemoan that the true spirit of the season is slipping away (perhaps even as their carts teem with bound-to-be-forgotten gifts). But a century ago, folks were likewise fed-up with the culture of mindless consumerism. And in one of the most fascinating, little-known chapters of American history -- they waged a war that even Presidents would join.

More from Treehugger.

(No need to kvetch aboutthe word Xmas.)

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Hell on wheels: The state with America's worst drivers revealed (It's not New York)

Which states strike fear in the heart of every motorist for having the least skilled, most distracted drivers on the road?

New data from CarInsuranceComparison.com used statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Motorists Association and Mothers Against Drink Driving to rank America's drivers, state by state.

And the winner of the dubious honor of America's worst drivers?

(New York was 22nd worst, BTW.)

Read more from the Daily Mail.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Best Small Cities for Starting Over (one in NYS)

Do you need a change of pace but the big city life is too fast for you? For a smaller setting that still offers plentiful job opportunities and chances to meet other singles, we have the list for you.

Smaller cities have the advantage of smaller crowds with attractions, stores, and restaurants that are within close reach. They may not have major corporations as an anchor, but these small cities have a lot of innovation, growth, and charm to keep you interested and fulfilled in your new life.

A city experiencing population growth signifies that it is a desirable area for people looking to move, whether for social or economic reasons. This statistic, combined with some of the others we used for this study, also indicates when a particular place has a strong job market, affordable housing, and entertainment attractions.

Next, we looked at each city’s income growth and unemployment rate, both of which shed light on the all-important economic conditions of an area. Not only are the cities in our top 10 witnessing lower unemployment rates, they’re also seeing salary increases, which is good news for residents.

Finally, for those who are looking for love (usually a good reason to start over!), we factored in the percentage of unmarried adults in each city, making it easier to find your match. And with your new job, you should have plenty of extra cash to wine and dine the new person in your life.

See the results from Credit Donkey HERE.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Curse you! How America Swears

We know, at this point, how the nation tweets. But what about how the nation swears?

The Ukrainian-based web development firm Vertaline, aiming to answer that question, scanned tweets posted from across 462 specific locations in the U.S. The team then isolated particular phrases from those tweets -- one of those phrases being, yep, "fuck you," which they tracked between July 14 and July 24, 2012. They then created a dynamic heatmap that portrays the density of the F-bomb-laden tweets as they were distributed geographically throughout each day of their date range, measured once per hour.

Article from The Atlantic.

There's a relatively long tradition, in the field of data visualization, of tracking the way we swear. This makes sense. Not only is it fun to track, but cursing is also conveniently specific as a data set; you've got your f-bombs and your double hockey sticks and your bodily functions, and, factoring in their permutations, you're good to go. Plus, you don't need much sophisticated sentiment analysis to ensure that your data are accurate: An f-bomb is pretty much an f-bomb, regardless of the contextual subtleties. As a result of all this, we, the public, get treated to sweary heat maps. And more sweary heat maps. And sweary interactive maps. There's just something about big data and sailor-cursing that complement each other—like peanut butter and mothereffing jelly.

Traditionally, those maps are based on text—on swears that are typed into Facebook or, even more publicly, Twitter. Making a map of the sweariest states requires simply gathering geocoded posts, isolating the swears, and going from there.

The least-courteous states? Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Indiana, Tennessee, and ... Ohio.
A new map, though, takes a more complicated approach. Instead of using text, it uses data gathered from ... phone calls. You know how, when you call a customer service rep for your ISP or your bank or what have you, you're informed that your call will be recorded? Marchex Institute, the data and research arm of the ad firm Marchex, got ahold of the data that resulted from some recordings, examining more than 600,000 phone calls from the past 12 months—calls placed by consumers to businesses across 30 different industries. It then used call mining technology to isolate the curses therein, cross-referencing them against the state the calls were placed from.

The findings from The Atlantic, again.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Consumers rage against lousy customer service

From Arizona State University:

A new customer-rage study shows more American consumers than ever are dissatisfied with the products and services we buy. Also, despite companies’ big-money efforts to create customer-care programs, we’re less happy with the service received when we complain. The study shows 56 million American households experienced at least one problem during the past 12 months, and about $76 billion in revenue was at stake for the businesses involved.

"The moral of the story: Don’t invest in improving your customer service unless you’re going to do it right," says Professor Mary Jo Bitner, executive director of the Center for Services Leadership at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, which helped design the survey. "If a company handles your complaint well, then you typically become a more loyal customer. However, if they don’t, then you become 12 percentage points less brand loyal than if you never complained at all."

This independent study is based on one originally conducted by the White House in 1976. The 2013 version is the sixth study wave, offering a clear comparison of customer satisfaction over the years.

From NBC News:

Customers are angrier than ever and no wonder: they're losing. The good news is with a few inside tips, they can get the satisfaction they deserve.

According to the 2013 Customer Rage Survey, customers are complaining more since 2011. And the tables have tipped: more than half the time consumers complain, they don't get results.

But as long as you have a reasonable complaint, there's no reason to just sit back and take it.

The four key consumer frustrations cited in the report -- too few customer service reps, too many automated phone menus, spending too much time dealing with the problem, and having to contact the company four times to get a result -- each have solutions.

*But here's something consumers can do.*

"Need to contact a company? Or have them call you? Get customer service faster and easier."

Go to GetHuman.com. Companies have more phone numbers and contact options than ever. GetHuman shows you how to get through fastest.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Homicide is only part of the gun violence issue—the smaller part

From Slate:

Since the massacre at Newtown, Conn., Slate has scoured the Web for information on gun-related deaths and adding them to this interactive. As the months unfolded, it became clear that even though thousands of people were being added to our database, we were missing thousands more. Now that we’re hitting the one-year mark, the full extent of that deviation is clear: The CDC counts about 32,000 people killed with guns each year, while Slate’s database only has one-third of that. Why the huge discrepancy?

Earlier this month Slate launched an effort to categorize the gun deaths in our system. That effort verified the source of the discrepancy: suicides.

Friday, December 13, 2013

New Infographic Focuses on Participation in Government Programs

Participation in government benefits programs, both means-tested and non-means-tested, grew during the recent downturn. A new "How Do We Know?" infographic from the Census Bureau, "Changes in Use of Government Programs from 2008 to 2011", uses results from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to show changes over that period in households that receive benefits, as well as participation in specific non-means tested and means-tested programs.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

World Births and Deaths, Simulated in Real-Time

If you hover over a particular country you can watch its births and deaths separately.

Also downloadable as an app!

From Google Drive.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Corruption remains a global threat

The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 serves as a reminder that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world. The Index scores 177 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). No country has a perfect score, and two-thirds of countries score below 50. This indicates a serious, worldwide corruption problem. Hover on the map above to see how your country fares. The world urgently needs a renewed effort to crack down on money laundering, clean up political finance, pursue the return of stolen assets and build more transparent public institutions. - See more at: #sthash.spN3CEEx.dpuf

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Fun with statistics! from the Census Bureau

I watched these fun Statistics in Schools videos. One addresses "how a picture can help you answer the three basic questions of statistical analysis: 'how big is it?', 'what difference does it make?', and 'are you sure that's just not dumb luck?'"

Monday, December 9, 2013

Place data by county on the Census web page

From a self-described Census geek:

Places within County (or Town)

The Census Bureau uses a three digit Summary Level as a way to identify a certain level of geography. A few Summary Levels to remember are:
040 – State
050 – County
060 – Subcounty (City/Town in NY)
070 – Place/Reminder (or part)

These summary levels are very hierarchical and make up the higher level. So all counties make a state, all subcounties make a county, and all level 070 make up a subcounty. If a place is split by two towns, this place will have two records at level 070, one for each town. The city of Geneva is the only city with two 060 records (one in Ontario and one in Seneca County).

There are some additional summary levels related to places tabulated in AFF and things get very complicated:
155 – County (or part) with Place
159 – Place (or part) with County
160 – Place with State
To see summary levels in AFF you have to go to the Name tab, collapse the Geographic Type in the Filter Options and expand the Summary Level. Level 155 and 159 are normally hidden from view, but shown when you select All Summary Levels in the grey bar above the results.

If you select level 155 you can narrow your results and select Within State and Within County. You end up with a list of places and part of places that are within each County. If a place crosses county boundaries this summary level will give you the results for the part!

Summary level 159 works similar, but instead of a list of counties to select from, you get a list of places and counties to select from. This is not very handy and results are identical to level 155.
Level 160 is a collection of records for places as places do not cross State boundaries. This level is very much equivalent to selecting “City or Town” from the Geographic Type and the places returned using the method Dale described as per Bob’s suggestion returns places with this Summary Level.

So if you want data on the complete places (villages, CDP’s and Cities) that are fully or partially within a county, use level 160. If you are interested in the parts that are within a county use level 155 and if you want to split the places by towns, use level 070.

The Estimates Universe is comparable, but slightly different as it does not contains CDP’s (CDP = Census Designated Places). The Census Bureau assigned a different set of summary levels to this universe. Instead of level 160, 155 and 070, places can be found using Summary levels 162, 157 and 071. That is if the sub county estimates were available using AFF. At the moment these estimates are only available in downloadable format.

Friday, December 6, 2013

The National Center for Charitable Statistics

Nonprofit data "at your fingertips."

The NCCS "mission is to develop and disseminate high quality data on nonprofit organizations and their activities for use in research on the relationships between the nonprofit sector, government, the commercial sector, and the broader civil society."

GET DATA HERE.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

How Many Homeschoolers in America?

This the most current information on homeschooling families in the U.S. The list of homeschooled kids by state is a work in progress and is updated annually with additional home education statistics as they are found. Home school statistics can be fraught with errors.

Here are statistics for New York State, though the New York City data are noticeably missing.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

JOIN the American Community Survey Data Users Group

The American Community Survey Data Users Group (ACS DUG) is an excellent resource for anyone who needs to access, analyze, interpret, and present data from the American Community Survey. ACS DUG is not managed by the Census Bureau but rather is driven by data users. The Census Bureau participates in many of the meetings. Data users are strongly encouraged to join the ACS DUG. It does not cost anything and is a great resource.

ACS Data Community is an online community that allows people to more easily connect with one another, share ideas, and collaborate.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Infographic Profiles Young Adults Without Health Insurance

In 2012, 27 percent of young adults (ages 19 to 34) lacked health insurance, although the rate varied widely from state to state, according to a new Census Bureau infographic, “The Young and Uninsured in 2012.” The infographic looks at the characteristics of this group and their uninsured rate in states and the largest metropolitan areas. The analysis uses American Community Survey data collected from 2008 to 2012.

Internet address

Monday, December 2, 2013

AllConferences.com

AllConferences.com is a Global Online Conference Directory showcasing over 100,000 conferences, conventions, trade shows, exhibits, expos and seminars.