Business Journalism Professors 2014: Creating a CBP Lesson by Steve Doig
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18-Oct-2014 -
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Transcript of Business Journalism Professors 2014: Creating a CBP Lesson by Steve Doig
S T E V E . D O I G @ A S U . E D U
CREATING A CBP LESSON
LESSON OVERVIEW
• Discuss Census Bureau as a rich source of business/economic data.
• Download county-level economic sector data on payroll, employees and establishments for two different time periods (like pre- and post-recession.)
• Use Excel to calculate useful measures – totals, differences, percents and percentage change – across time.
• Discover how different sectors of the local economy have changed across time.
LESSON GOALS FOR STUDENTS
• Learn about Census Bureau business data as a source of story ideas.
• Learn to find local economic data about industry sectors with County Business Patterns from Census.
• Learn to use Excel spreadsheet to calculate sums, differences, percents and percentage change.
• Learn to use results of calculations to spot trends in the data.
PREPARATION
• Download raw tables from Census • Prepare a spreadsheet that has two different years of
data side by side. • Format the numbers and text to make them more
readable. • Delete the “first quarter payroll” columns (why? kind of
redundant to annual payroll.) • Delete “total for all sectors” row (why? So students can
calculate the totals themselves.) • Add variable names to be calculated during the lesson.
(or have students do that.) • Save and put somewhere for students to download
during lesson.
WWW.CENSUS.GOV/ECON/CBP/INDEX.HTML
WWW.CENSUS.GOV/ECON/CBP/INDEX.HTML
PICK STATE, THEN COUNTY
GET THIS TABLE
SAVE AS A CSV FILE
OPEN RAW TABLE IN EXCEL
SELECT, COPY, THEN PASTE INTO A NEW WORKSHEET
PASTE 2011 AND 2007 SIDE BY SIDE
DELETE “FIRST QUARTER PAYROLL” COLUMNS
FORMAT TO MAKE IT READABLE; ADD 2011 AND 2007 TO THE VARS
ADD NEW COLUMNS FOR LESSON
EXCEL CALCULATIONS
• Find number change in number of employees for each sector
• Find number change in annual payroll by sector • Find number change in total establishments by
sector • Find percentage change in number of employees
for each sector • Find percentage change in annual payroll by
sector • Find percentage change in total establishments by
sector
FORMULAS FOR LESSON
ANSWERS
PATTERNS TO EXPLORE
• What was the economy-wide change in total employees, payroll and establishments between the two periods?
• Which sectors gained/lost the most in absolute terms?
• Which sectors gained/lost the most in percentage terms?
OTHER IDEAS
• Calculate each sectors’ share of the total economy in both periods. Who is gaining and who is shrinking?
• Calculate the “average income” by sector (payroll*1000/employees). Correct for inflation by using the CPI. Any real growth/loss?
• Explore change in the size of establishments by using the bottom of the CBP table.
• If you want to focus on a particular sector, go back to the CBP website table and click on “detail”. Download that resultinto Excel and do similar calculations.