Improving Estimates of Employment in Small Geographic Areas 1

Abstract

Employment data for small geographic areas such as counties are often published only as ranges, to avoid disclosing information pertaining to a specific firm. This paper presents a procedure to reduce the range of employment data published by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The procedure involves two stages, the first one uses the published employment range together with data on the number of firms by size-class to make a first reduction in the range of employment in an industry and area. The second stage reduces that range further by using data from other industries in the same area. An example of the complete procedure is given. The results of applying the procedure to all two-digit industries in counties of six different states are also reported.