May Update - New Data Source & Zip Code Miles Distance!

All subscribers can visit the Dropbox link shared in this month's email for the below updates:

New Data Source

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics is the latest data source added to our database. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the American public, the U.S. Congress, other Federal agencies, State and local governments, business, and labor representatives. The agency measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision making.

New field names include:

• Employment_Employed_County_Level_Only_Cnt - Employed labor force population in the prior month. Same information as  'EmploymentStatus_16+_InLaborForce_CivilianLaborForce_Pop_Employed_Cnt' but limited to county level and reflects prior month.
• Employment_Labor_Force_County_Level_Only_Cnt - Total labor force population in the prior month. Same information as  'EmploymentStatus_CivilianLaborForce_Pop_Cnt' but limited to county level and reflects prior month.
• Employment_Unemployed_County_Level_Only_Cnt - Unemployed labor force population in the prior month. Same information as  'EmploymentStatus_16+_InLaborForce_CivilianLaborForce_Pop_Unmployed_Cnt' but limited to county level and reflects prior month.
• Employment_Unemployed_Rate_County_Level_Only_Pct - Unemployed labor force percentage in the prior month. Same information as  'EmploymentStatus_CivilianLaborForce_UnemploymentRate_Pop_Pct' but limited to county level and reflects prior month.

This data source updates monthly and is the only data source that is not at the zip code level, it is at the county level. When using these fields, you will need to use an average since the metric is duplicated for every zip code within the respective county. These fields already existed in the database and are at the zip code level, but are not updated monthly - only yearly.

Zip Code to Zip Code Miles Distance Calculator

Several customers have requested a way to automatically calculate the miles distance between any two zip codes. We created and shared an Excel spreadsheet to automatically show the miles distance across all zip codes. The file is located in the shared Dropbox for all subscribers.

Folder Structure & File Type Update

Moving forward, a new monthly folder will be added to the Dropbox and shared to all subscribers. Additionally, per feedback from several customers, the zip code database file has been saved as a CSV, instead of an XLSX.

Field Name Update

We identified a misspelling in two variable names. Variable names "Health_BingeDriinking_Cnt" and "Health_BingeDriinking_Pct" were changed to "Health_BingeDrinking_Cnt"  and "Health_BingeDrinking_Pct" respectively.