economy_unemployment_county_year
LAUS annual county unemployment: labor force, employed, unemployed, rate (C2). Tier C (modeled). History 1990-present.
tier —regression_model
overview
overview
All 3,221 counties x 35 years. LAUS modeled monthly with annual averages.
current vintage — 2024 annual averages
history — LAUS: 1976 to present
provenance
source & licensing
authority
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
dataset
Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS)
source url
methodology
license
—
citation
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), 1990-2024.
schema
fields
| name | type | definition |
|---|---|---|
| country_id | string | ISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables). |
| county_idkey | string | 5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Joins dim.counties on county_id. |
| employed | int64 · count | Number of civilians in the county who worked at least one hour for pay or profit, or 15 or more unpaid hours in a family business, during the reference period. |
| labor_force | int64 · count | Total number of civilians in the county who are either employed or unemployed; the sum of the employed and unemployed counts. Higher values indicate a larger working-age population participating in the economy. |
| state_id | string | 2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Joins dim.states on state_id. |
| unemployed | int64 · count | Number of civilians in the county who are jobless, available for work, and actively seeking employment during the reference period. |
| unemployment_rate | float64 · percent (0–100) | Percentage of the civilian labor force that is unemployed, calculated as (unemployed / labor_force) × 100. Higher values indicate greater unemployment stress in the county. |
| yearkey | int64 | Reference year of the observation. |
relationships
joins
primary key
county_id, year
common joins
dim.geographies on county_id
economy_employment_levels_county_year on (county_id, year)
usage
how to use this table
method
BLS uses signal-extraction model combining CPS state estimates, UI claims, CES employment, and ACS commuting flows to produce county labor force, employment, and unemployment.
do not use for
Single-month change in counties <50k labor force (model volatile); current-month tracking (subject to revision); structural unemployment vs cyclical decomposition.
known issues
Model-based - Tier C reliability. Annual revisions in March can shift recent years materially.
last updated · May 5, 2026