Matching Supply to Demand: Addressing the U.S. Primary Care Workforce Shortage

While there is little debate about a growing primary care workforce shortage in the United States, precise estimates of current and projected need vary. A secondary problem contributing to addressing capacity shortfalls is that the distribution of primary care practitioners often is mismatched with patient needs. For example, patients in rural areas or low-income patients—particularly the uninsured—may have greater problems accessing primary care services than well-insured, suburban residents. ... While existing, longer-term efforts to boost the primary care workforce are necessary, they may be insufficient for some time because a meaningful increase in practitioners will take decades. Rather, policy makers may want to consider ways to increase the productivity of primary care providers and accelerate primary care workforce expansion by, for example, examining how changes in state scope-of-practice policies might increase the supply of non-physician practitioners.

Full report [PDF]

2010 Annual Survey of State Government Finances

Total state government revenue increased to $2.0 trillion in 2010, up 79.0 percent from $1.1 trillion in 2009, resulting mainly from large increases in social insurance trust revenue, according to the latest findings from the U.S. Census Bureau [PDF]. After a substantial loss in earnings in 2009, trust systems showed earnings of $450.5 billion in 2010, a gain of 218.2 percent over the year before.

Two major sources make up these trust systems: (1) employee retirement systems and (2) federal and state social insurance trust systems, which include the unemployment compensation system, state government worker's compensation programs, Social Security, Medicare, veteran's life insurance and railroad retirement.

Earnings on these systems vary widely year to year because state retirement systems invest heavily in financial markets and respond to shifts in market performance.

View the publication page for summary, tax, lottery and other data.

Governmental Tracking of Cell Phones and Vehicles: The Confluence of Privacy, Technology, and Law

This report [PDF] will briefly survey Fourth Amendment law as it pertains to the government's tracking programs. It will then summarize federal electronic surveillance statutes and the case law surrounding cell phone location tracking. Next, the report will describe the GPS-vehicle tracking cases and review the pending Supreme Court GPS tracking case, United States v. Jones. Finally, the report will summarize the geolocation and electronic surveillance legislation introduced in the 112th Congress.

Major changes to Harmonized System coming in 2012

Did you know that there are major changes to the Harmonized System (HS) taking place in 2012? The bulk of the changes are in food-related chapters (1-21). Other chapters with notable changes include:
Water-pipe tobacco (24)
Biodiesel (27 and 38)
Mercury compounds (=> 28)
Water-jet cutting machines (85)
Video game machines (95)
Diapers, etc. (96)


Visit Export.gov to find out more.

Regents Advisory Council for Libraries issues second draft of Creating the Future, a 2020 Vision

The New York State Regents Advisory Council for Libraries has released the second draft of Creating the Future, a 2020 Vision and Plan for Library Services in New York State: Preliminary Recommendations of the New York State Regents Advisory Council on Libraries to the New York State Board of Regents. The deadline for submitting written comments about the second draft is February 15, 2012.

Learn online about health & wellness from the National Library of Medicine

The National Library of Medicine can help you learn about the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment for a variety of diseases and conditions. From Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms to Varicose Veins, and many topics in between.

Created for patients, you can learn about the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment for a variety of diseases and conditions. Also learn about surgeries, prevention and wellness.
Each tutorial includes animated graphics, audio, and easy-to-read language

Bureau of Justice Statistics

• Capital Punishment, 2010 - Statistical Tables
• Census of Jail Facilities, 2006
• Correctional Population in the United States, 2010
• Federal Justice Statistics, 2009
• Federal Justice Statistics, 2009 - Statistical Tables
• Justice Expenditures and Employment, 1982-2007 - Statistical Tables
• Prisoners in 2010
• Women in the Labor Force: A Databook (2011 Edition)

New York State Statistical Yearbook

The New York State Statistical Yearbook provides more than 700 pages of data, tables, graphs and maps on the state's people, economy and government, as well as selected comparisons with other states. Who needs this information? Members of the news media, government officials, citizens and others. The data enhance understanding of the economic and social environment in which state government operates. Such improved understanding is increasingly important as tough decisions must be made in a challenging fiscal climate.

Originated 35 years ago as a joint project of the Rockefeller Institute and the state Division of the Budget, the Statistical Yearbook is now available both in print and online, where data appear in both Excel spreadsheet and PDF format. The Institute is exploring options for placing additional relevant data about New York State government online.

Department of Agriculture - Economic Research Service

Estimates of farm sector income with component accounts: for the United States, 1910-2011; and for States, 1949-2010. Data are released three times a year. The next release will include the 2012 farm income and balance sheet forecast. The release is scheduled for mid February. Overview Estimates are presented of the farm sector's income generated by employment of the sector's resource base in production activities and its contribution as a key component sector of the national economy for 1910 to the present. The national farm income account is disaggregated into component accounts to provide insight into the financial performance of the diverse production activities, participants, and geographic regions of the country. Economic trends can be determined and analyzed using data related to production and marketing of commodities, expenditures for types of inputs, income for States, income by size of farm, and the role of government in supporting the sector. A complete set of estimates is provided for each State. Data Files Major data categories are value-added (farm income), cash receipts, rankings for commodities and States, production expenses, cash income, government payments, and income statements by size of farm. The historical estimates are conceptually the same as the farm income forecast and thus provide a lengthy time series for analysis of the sector's current financial health, trends, and outlook. See all data files... Release Schedule Updates are made in mid February, late August, and late November. Glossary Check the glossary for explanations of the economic concepts used throughout farm income and costs data. Questions and Answers Q. Why are the ERS income estimates referred to as farm sector accounts? A. The farm income accounts measure the earnings from all production activities in the farm sector as defined by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) for national income accounting. Q. Are the ERS income estimates comparable to income reported by farmers to the Internal Revenue Service? A. No. The conceptual framework underlying the ERS value-added accounts through which farm income is estimated is consistent with the BEA's national income accounting. Also, data are not available to duplicate taxable income accounting because of confidentiality requirements associated with tax filings. Link to web page here.  

Agricultural Commodities Areas

For more than 90 years, AMS has provided current, unbiased price and sales information to assist in the orderly marketing and distribution of farm commodities. Reports include information on prices, volume, quality, condition, and other market data on farm products in specific markets and marketing areas. Reports cover both domestic and international markets. The data is disseminated within hours of collection via the Internet and made available through electronic means, in printed reports, by telephone recordings and through the news media.

In particular, check out the Commodities Area, which provides current prices for COTTON, DAIRY, FRUIT AND VEGETABLE and LIVESTOCK AND SEED.

America's Health Rankings 2011

Health is a result of our behaviors, our individual genetic predisposition to disease, the environment and the community in which we live, the clinical care we receive and the policies and practices of our health care and prevention systems. Each of us — individually, as a community, and as a society — strives to optimize these health determinants, so that all of us can have a long, disease-free and robust life regardless of race, gender or socioeconomic status.

This report looks at the four groups of health determinants that can be affected:

1. Behaviors include the everyday activities we do that affect our personal health. 
2. Community and environment reflects the reality that the daily conditions in which we live our lives have a great effect on achieving optimal individual health. 
3. Public and health policies are indicative of the availability of resources to encourage and maintain health and the extent that public and health programs reach into the general population.
4. Clinical care reflects the quality, appropriateness and cost of the care we receive at doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals.

Direct link to full report

Center files motion for leave to appeal in FOIL lawsuit

The Empire Center for New York State Policy has asked the state's highest court to review an appellate decision that would hide public information from public view. The Center's efforts have been bolstered by an amicus brief filed on behalf of the state's leading newspapers.

In an October 18 ruling, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Manhattan denied the Empire Center's appeal of a lower court decision in favor of the New York City Police Pension Fund, which had refused to comply with the Empire Center's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for a list of the fund's pension recipients.

The full release can be viewed here.

Films on the 1940 Censuses

The history buffs among us will find this interesting. There are two films (about 3 and 11 minutes) promoting participation in the 1940 Census. Note the reference to collecting all of the data within one month. Of course, this was all done by list enumerate methods instead of mail-out/mail-back.

Legacy Version of American FactFinder will Retire January 20, 2012

What Will Happen?

The Legacy Version of American FactFinder will be discontinued January 20, 2012.

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How will this affect you?

Any deep links into the discontinued system will no longer work.

1. Deep links to specific products from these datasets will not be available:

1990 Census
2000-2004 American Community Survey
2000-2001 Supplementary Survey
1997 Economic Census
2003 Annual Survey of Manufactures
2003 Nonemployer Statistics

2. These products will only be available through an archived FTP format. Instructions on how to access these archived products will be provided in future updates.

3. All other current and previous year data from the American Community Survey, Puerto Rico Community Survey, Annual Population Estimates, Economic Census, and Annual Economic Surveys are available at http://factfinder2.census.gov.

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What do you need to do?

Use the how-to guide for Building Deep Links into the New American Factfinder to create links to the NEW American FactFinder.

Look for additional updates in the coming weeks.

Make. An American Manufacturing Movement

In this global, consumer-oriented and knowledge-intensive economy, the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing has never been more uncertain or important – nor have policy prescriptions been more contentious. All Americans would benefit from getting this right. A new era of manufacturing excellence offers hope for good jobs, new innovations and a higher standard of living. America would benefit from faster economic growth, a more secure industrial and defense base, and an ability to produce solutions to national challenges in energy, health and environment.

Link to full report.

Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2006–2010

People living in poverty tend to be clustered in certain neighborhoods rather than being evenly distributed across geographic areas. Measuring this concentration of poverty is important because researchers have found that living in areas with many other poor people places burdens on low-income families beyond what the families' own individual circumstances would dictate. Many argue that this concentration of poverty results in higher crime rates, underperforming public schools, poor housing and health conditions, as well as limited access to private services

Direct link to full report

The Open Knowledge Foundation: Open Data Means Better Science

Multiple individuals, groups, and organisations are involved in a major movement to reform the process of scientific communication. The promotion of open access and open data and the development of platforms that reduce the cost and difficulty of data handling play a principal role in this.

One such organisation is the Working Group on Open Data in Science (also known as the Open Science Working Group) at the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF). The OKF is a community-based organisation that promotes open knowledge, which encompasses open data, free culture, the public domain, and other areas of the knowledge commons. Founded in 2004, the organisation has grown into an international network of communities that develop tools, applications, and guidelines enabling the opening up of data, and subsequently the discovery and use of that data.

Link to publication page for additional viewing and downloading options

Unauthorized Immigrants: Length of Residency, Patterns of Parenthood

Nearly two-thirds of the 10.2 million unauthorized adult immigrants in the United States have lived in this country for at least 10 years and nearly half are parents of minor children, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

These estimates are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2010 Current Population Survey, augmented with the Center’s analysis of the demographic characteristics of the unauthorized immigrant population using a "residual estimation methodology" that the Center has employed for many years.

Full Report PDF

Identity Theft Reported by Households, 2005-2010

An estimated 8.6 million households had at least one person age 12 or older who experienced identity theft victimization in 2010, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. This was an increase from the 6.4 million households victimized in 2005.

Identity theft is the unauthorized use or attempted use of an existing credit card or another type of existing account, the unauthorized use of personal information to open a new account or for another fraudulent purpose, or a combination of these.

The unauthorized use of an existing credit card accounted for much of the increase in household identity theft from 2005 to 2010. The number of households experiencing the misuse of an existing credit card rose from about 3.6 million in 2005 to 5.5 million in 2010.

Link to full report.

View the publication web page for additional formats and information

NY ranked second in employee pay, 26th in per capita cost

The average pay for state workers in New York was $55,662 in 2010, according to the report, released Friday by the Center for Government Research, based on an analysis of U.S. Census of Governments data.

One-Third of Fathers with Working Wives Regularly Care for Their Children

Among fathers with a wife in the workforce, 32 percent were a regular source of care for their children under age 15, up from 26 percent in 2002, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. Among these fathers with preschool-age children, one in five fathers was the primary caregiver, meaning their child spent more time in their care than any other type of arrangement.

The series of tables titled Who’s Minding the Kids? Child Care Arrangements: Spring 2010 showed that in a typical week, 12.2 million (61 percent) of the 20 million children under age 5 were in some type of regular child care arrangement.

As married women have increasingly moved into the labor force, fathers have become more available for child care while their wives are working.

“A recession may force families to adjust their child care arrangements, “said Lynda Laughlin, a family demographer at the Census Bureau. “It can trigger unemployment or changes in work hours, thus increasing the availability of fathers to provide child care. It also can reduce available income to pay for child care outside of the home.”

The tables provide statistics on child care arrangements of preschoolers and grade-schoolers by various demographic characteristics of the employed and nonemployed mothers. They also examine the characteristics of children who care for themselves on a regular basis as well as how the cost of weekly child care varies based on selected family characteristics.

Other highlights:

In households with working moms, family members continue to serve as an important source of child care for preschoolers. In spring of 2010, 30 percent of preschoolers were regularly cared for by their grandparents, 29 percent were cared for by their fathers, and 12 percent received care from a sibling or other relative.

Preschoolers with employed black and Hispanic mothers were more likely to be cared for by their grandparents than their fathers. Twenty-nine percent of black preschoolers were cared for by their grandparents, while a quarter (22 percent) were cared for by their fathers. A third of Hispanic preschoolers were regularly taken care of by their grandparent, compared with 29 percent who received care from their fathers.

Among preschoolers of employed non-Hispanic white mothers, 30 percent were cared for by their fathers and 29 percent were cared for by their grandparents.

Of the 21 million mothers who were employed in the spring of 2010, one-third reported they paid for child care for at least one of their children.

Families with an employed mother and children younger than 15 paid an average of $138 per week for child care in 2010, up from $81 in 1985 (in constant 2010 dollars), the first year that these data were collected.

Mothers with children under age 5 were more likely to make child care payments than mothers who only had children between the ages of 5 and 14 (47 percent and 23 percent, respectively).

Families in poverty who paid for care in 2010 spent a greater proportion of their monthly income on child care than did families at or above the poverty line (40 percent compared with 7 percent).

Among all children, self-care was much more prevalent among middle school-age children than among those in elementary schools: 10 percent of ages 5 to 11 and 30 percent of ages 12 to 14 regularly cared for themselves.

This report is one of several related to children and families to have been released recently or that will be released soon by the Census Bureau, including Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2009; Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns of First-Time Mothers: 1961-2008; and Comparing Program Participation of TANF and non-TANF Families Before and During a Time of Recession.

Fall 2011 Statistics of Income Bulletin

The Internal Revenue Service announced availability of the fall 2011 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, which features data for 140.5 million individual income tax returns filed for tax year 2009. Adjusted gross income (AGI) reported on these returns totaled $7.6 trillion.

The Statistics of Income (SOI) Division produces the SOI Bulletin on a quarterly basis. Articles included in the publication provide the most recent data available from various tax and information returns filed by U.S. taxpayers. This issue of the SOI Bulletin also includes articles on the following:

• Partnership returns. For tax year 2009, more than 3 million partnerships filed federal tax returns, reporting $18.8 trillion in total assets and almost $410 billion in total net income.
• Municipal bonds. The majority of municipal bonds were tax-exempt governmental bonds, of which there were 22,000 issued in 2009, raising $340.7 billion in proceeds for public projects, such as schools, transportation infrastructure and utilities.
• Charities, Social Clubs, and Other Tax-Exempt Organizations. For 2008, nonprofit charitable organizations, excluding private foundations, reported $2.5 trillion in total assets and $1.4 trillion in revenue.

Full report here.

The Nation's Forest Census

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the U.S. Forest Service provides the information needed to assess America's forests.

For world numbers, go to the UN's FAO.

Comprehensive Analysis of Fast-Growing 90-and-Older Population

The nation’s 90-and-older population nearly tripled over the past three decades, reaching 1.9 million in 2010, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau and supported by the National Institute on Aging. Over the next four decades, this population is projected to more than quadruple.

Because of increases in life expectancy at older ages, people 90 and older now comprise 4.7 percent of the older population (age 65 and older), as compared with only 2.8 percent in 1980. By 2050, this share is likely to reach 10 percent.

The majority of people 90 and older report having one or more disabilities, living alone or in a nursing home and graduating from high school. People in this age group also are more likely to be women and to have higher widowhood, poverty and disability rates than people just under this age cutoff.

These findings come from 90+ in the United States: 2006-2008, which presents an overview of this age group and a comparative analysis of selected demographic and socio-economic differences between people 90 and older and their younger counterparts within the older population. Statistics for the report, which go down to the state level, come from the 2006-2008 American Community Survey 3-year estimates and 2008 1-year estimates, as well as census and projections data.

“Traditionally, the cutoff age for what is considered the ‘oldest old’ has been age 85,” said Census Bureau demographer Wan He, “but increasingly people are living longer and the older population itself is getting older. Given its rapid growth, the 90-and-older population merits a closer look.

“Previously, relatively little research focused on this increasingly important population group, and this report attempts to fill that void,” she continued. “The American Community Survey, with its large sample size in multiyear data sets, allows an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of the 90-and-older population.”

An older person’s likelihood of living in a nursing home increases sharply with age. While about only 1 percent of people in their upper 60s and 3 percent in their upper 70s were nursing home residents, the proportion rose to about 20 percent for those in their lower 90s, more than 30 percent for people in their upper 90s, and nearly 40 percent for centenarians.

While nearly all people in their 90s who lived in a nursing home had a disability (98.2 percent), the vast majority (80.8 percent) of those who did not live in a nursing home also had one or more disabilities. Difficulty doing errands alone and performing general mobility-related activities of walking or climbing stairs were the most common types, which indicates that many who live in households may need assistance with everyday activities.

The proportion of people age 90 to 94 having disabilities is more than 13 percentage points higher than that of 85- to 89-year-olds.

Other highlights:

--Given that people age 90 and older included in the report were born in 1918 or earlier, an unexpectedly high proportion (61.3 percent) had completed high school or above. Nearly 28 percent continued their education beyond high school, about half of whom completed a bachelor’s degree or higher.

--The 90-and-older population is overwhelmingly (88.1 percent) white. Additionally, blacks represented 7.6 percent, Asians 2.2 percent and Hispanics (who may be of any race) about 4 percent.

--The annual median personal income for people 90 and older during 2006-2008 was $14,760 (in 2008 inflation-adjusted dollars). Almost half (47.9 percent) of this amount came from Social Security and another 18.3 percent came from retirement pension income. All in all, 92.3 percent of those 90 and older received income from the Social Security Administration (86.2 percent received Social Security income only with the remainder receiving either Supplemental Security Income only or both).

--In 2006-2008, 14.5 percent of people 90 and older lived in poverty, a higher rate than for those 65-89 (9.6 percent).

--Among the 90-and-older population, women outnumber men by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. There were 38 men for every 100 women ages 90 to 94, with the ratio dropping to 26 for ages 95 to 99 and 24 for those 100 and older.

--More than 80 percent of women 90 and older were widowed, while more than 40 percent of men this age were married.

--In 2006-2008, half of men 90 and older lived in a household with family members and/or unrelated individuals, less than one-third lived alone, and about 15 percent were in an institutionalized living arrangement such as a nursing home. In contrast, less than one-third of women in this age group lived in a household with family members and/or unrelated individuals, four in 10 lived alone, and another quarter were in institutionalized living arrangements. (See Figure 2.)

--Those 90 and older were almost universally (99.5 percent) covered by health insurance.

Best and Worst Run States in America

For the second year, 24/7 Wall St. has reviewed data on financial health, standard of living and government services by state to determine how well each state is managed. Based on this data, 24/7 Wall St. ranked the 50 states from the best to worst run. The best-run state is Wyoming. The worst-run state is California.

Read more.

Want to guess where New York State ranks?

Progress and Pitfalls of Diversity on Wall Street

The Center for Urban Research's latest report is The Progress and Pitfalls of Diversity on Wall Street, prepared by Richard Alba, Acting Director of Center for Urban Research, and Joseph Pereira, of the CUNY Data Service. The report considers the financial industry centered in and around New York City as a crucial site for examining one of the major economic challenges for the nation during the next quarter century: the collision between the growing diversity of the college-educated workforce and the historical recruitment and promotion patterns focused on white men. (The report is based on an analysis of census data from 2000 and the 2005-2009 ACS.)

Some key findings include:

1) The white-male share of the core Wall St. workforce is declining over time. For instance, white men were two-thirds of older workers (45 years and older) with high-status occupations in 2000, but they were only 46 percent of younger workers (30 and younger) in 2005-09. The shift has not been altered by the layoffs associated with the economic downturn.

2) In ethno-racial terms, the bulk of diversity on Wall St. is due to the rapidly growing share of Asian workers, who have gone from 5 percent of older core workers in 2000 to 19 percent of younger ones in 2005-09. Latinos have increased their share as well, but African Americans have not.

3) Women are increasing only modestly their presence in the Wall St. workforce, and they remain distinctly underrepresented by comparison with their proportion of the college educated.

4) White men take home the lion’s share of earnings from Wall St. Especially among workers older than 30, ages when earnings can be very high, white men’s median earnings exceed those of other groups by margins that frequently approach or even surpass 2-to-1.

The report notes two possible classes of explanations for the group disparities evident in the Wall St. workforce: minorities and women may differ in the human-capital characteristics required for career trajectories oriented towards top positions, and/or they may be excluded by discrimination, institutional or individual, from these trajectories. Census data cannot tell us which kind of explanation is more important; deciding between them requires other kinds of data, which currently do not exist.

For further information about the report, contact
• Richard Alba at ralba@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-8773 (cell: 518-727-3475) or
• Joseph Pereira at jpereira@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-2032

Economic Benefits of International Education to the United States

Source: NAFSA

Foreign students and their families spent more than $20 billion in the United States during the 2010 – 2011 academic year, according to a new NAFSA report released today. California, New York, and Texas welcomed the largest numbers of foreign students, and those states and others across the country each saw a substantial benefit from spending by these students and their families on living expenses, tuition, and fees.

Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of American Restaurants

Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of American Restaurants [PDF] is a 30-page guide to working conditions in popular American restaurants, published by Restaurant Opportunities Center United, a worker-rights advocacy group. It tells you whether the staff at the restaurant you're thinking of eating at gives its staff sick-leave, whether they are paid beyond the $2.13 minimum wage for tipped workers, and whether the restaurant has a policy of limiting women, immigrants and people of color to lower-paid "back of the house" jobs.

[Description from Boing Boing]

A Look at the Foreign-Born Population, Live on C-SPAN

The Census Bureau will be a guest on C-SPAN's "American By the Numbers" segment.

On Friday, Dec. 2, from 8 to 9:00 a..m.., Elizabeth Grieco, chief of the Foreign-Born Population Branch, will appear live on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” to discuss the foreign-born population. Her presentation will include a rich mix of statistical visualizations and discussion, including a public call-in segment. This is part of a weekly Friday series called “America By the Numbers” that features the federal statistical agencies.

You are invited to tune in and watch the program. C-SPAN is available live through the Internet.

For more information and to view the presentation graphs, please visit this link, which will be live Friday morning (Dec. 2).

New York State's Property Tax Cap: A Citizens Guide

From the Empire Center for New York State Policy

New York State recently enacted its first-ever cap on the annual growth in local government and school district tax levies. While the tax cap is essentially a simple concept, based on a successful tax limitation in neighboring Massachusetts, the first stages of the implementation process in many communities has inevitably raised many questions about how the law is supposed to work.

New York State's Property Tax Cap: A Citizen's Guide is designed to answer those questions in a short, easy-to-understand format. The booklet includes a summary description of the cap, answers to frequently ask questions, and the full text of the tax cap law itself.