This is an ongoing project that began several years ago, when NORC joined a committee to redesign the Current Employment Statistics (CES), a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) federal/state cooperative survey program. NORC participated as a subcontractor to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), in part to help represent states’ interests in the redesign.

Subsequently, IDES asked NORC to estimate employment for smaller domains than those for which CES was designed, a need that became more urgent with passage of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. NORC built a software system to estimate total employment for NAICS industry sectors at the county and Workforce Investment Area levels. NORC has supported IDES with upgrades to the system, recommendations for the development of historical time series consistent with the system estimates, geographical assignments of Cook County establishments into corresponding Workforce Investment Areas, and the development of seasonal adjustment processes consistent with BLS procedures.

Related Links:
Illinois Department of Employment Security