2014 Data Release Notes

November 2015

New methodology for the Oil & Gas Extraction sectors (sectors 20 and 21):  Our source for Output for sectors 20 (Extraction of natural gas and crude petroleum) and 21 (Extraction of natural gas liquids) had been the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).  However, upon investigating some sizable differences between EIA values and BEA values, we discovered that the EIA data represent commodity output, while the BEA figures capture industry output.  However, we cannot use BEA figures directly because they are lagged a year and they do not have the same level of industry detail as IMPLAN (in this case, the two extraction sectors are combined as one in the BEA data).  Thus, our new methodology involves using the ratio of “Extraction of natural gas and crude petroleum” output to “Extraction of natural gas liquids” output from the latest Economic Census to split out the lagged BEA value into the two IMPLAN sectors, and then project the two BEA figures using the EIA data.

County Changes: Bedford City, Virginia (State FIPS 51, County FIPS 515) changed from independent city status to town status and was added to Bedford County (State FIPS 51, County FIPS 019), effective July 1, 2013.

Improved Employment and Labor Income Methodology:  We inquired with the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) about the difference between their Regional Economic Accounts (REA) state-level wage and salary employment (SA27) and the Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS)’s Census of Employment and Wages (CEW) wage and salary employment counts for the few industries where there is a significant difference but which the BLS does not acknowledge any coverage gap – Fishing/Hunting/Trapping, Membership Organizations, and Private Education (the BLS does acknowledge a coverage gap with military, private households, farms, and railroads).  We were informed that BEA upwardly adjusts the employment and income estimates for these sectors due to coverage gaps.

• The adjustment for Membership Organizations is for religious organizations, so we now adjust this IMPLAN sector according to state-specific REA/CEW ratios.
• The Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 exempted a lot of employees in shellfishing and finfishing from unemployment insurance coverage.  This adjustment affects GA, RI, LA, TX, OR, and MA.  Thus, we now adjust this IMPLAN sector according to state-specific REA/CEW ratios as well.
• There is an adjustment for Private Education, which applies primarily to student workers at universities.   Thus, we now adjust this IMPLAN sector according to state-specific REA/CEW ratios as well.
• There is an adjustment for Private Households.  Thus, we now adjust this IMPLAN sector according to state-specific REA/CEW ratios as well.  

Commuter Flows:  We obtained new Journey-To-Work data from the 2009-2013 American Community Survey and have incorporated it into the 2014 IMPLAN data.

Incorporating BEA data into the farm sectors:  We added a control of the sum of our state-level estimates to BEA’s national estimates for the value of crop sales.   ERS, which is BEA’s primary initial source of cash receipts by commodity, estimates include adjustments for Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) loans, and do not account for home consumption or inventory, all of which need to be addressed when estimating output based on cash receipts.   We obtain estimates value of production for certain agricultural products from NASS; these values don’t require adjustments for CCC or inventory.  BEA adds the value of intra-state livestock sales to its estimates, which should be included in output, so this tends to increase our estimates.  We do not control individual state values to BEA values since we generally can obtain and process more current ERS and NASS data before they are incorporated into BEA’s data.  Although BEA’s “other crops” category includes sugar cane, BEA does not produce any detailed estimate of sugarcane output, which is well-measured by NASS and ERS, so we do not apply the control to that IMPLAN sector.  The Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Economic Research Service, and the Census of Agriculture continue to be our primary data sources for estimating state- and county-level agricultural output.

Improved methodology for estimating proprietor employment:  In 2014, we developed a method to estimate Wage and Salary Employment separately from Proprietor Employment.  As part of this process, we incorporated new data sources (Census Non-Employer Statistics and CBP Organizations with Employees by Ownership Type) and more involved processes for estimating the proprietor count.