Active Event
An event for which claims data are still being collected, either in the form of initial claims or continued claims payment dates.

Additional Claim
A second or subsequent unemployment claim filed within an established benefit year or period of eligibility when there has been intervening employment.

African-American
Many Americans of African descent use this term of identification. Many Federal and State agencies still use the descriptor "black" for this race group and it is the term that is used on the Census 2000 questionnaire.

Agent State
The state in which a claimant files an interstate claim for UI compensation against another (liable) state where wages were earned is the agent state. Usually, this is the claimant's state of residence.

Age
Age is generally derived from date of birth information, and is based on the age of the person in complete years.

Aggregate
The sum of the values for each of the elements in the universe. For example, aggregate household income is the sum of the income of all households in a given geographic area. Aggregates are frequently used in computing mean values (mean equals aggregate divided by universe count).

Agricultural Employment
Persons who work as owners and operators of farms, as unpaid family workers on farms and as hired workers who are engaged in farm activities.

Alaska Native race/ethnic categories
Self-identification among people of Alaska Native descent. These are the five detailed Alaska Native race and ethnic categories used in displaying data from Census 2000:

1. Alaska Athabaskan
2. Aleut
3. Eskimo
4. Tlingit-Haida
5. All other tribes

All Other Nonagricultural Employment
Includes self-employed, unpaid family and private household workers.

ALMIS
See America's Labor Market Information System.

American Community Survey (ACS)
The American Community Survey is a large, continuous demographic survey conducted by the Census Bureau that will eventually provide accurate and up-to-date profiles of America's communities every year. Questionnaires are mailed to a sample of addresses to obtain information about households—that is, about each person and the housing unit itself. The survey produces annual and multi-year estimates of population and housing characteristics and produces data for small areas, including tracts and population subgroups.

Questions asked are similar to those on the decennial census long form.

American FactFinder (AFF)
An electronic system for access and dissemination of Census Bureau data on the internet. The system offers prepackaged data products and user-selected data tables and maps from Census 2000, the 1990 Census of Population and Housing, the 1997 and 2002 Economic Censuses, the Population Estimates Program, annual economic surveys and the American Community Survey. The system was formerly known as the Data Access and Dissemination System (DADS).

American Indian tribe/Selected American Indian categories
Self-identification among people of American Indian descent. Many American Indians are members of a principal tribe or group empowered to negotiate and make decisions on behalf of the individual members. Census 2000 data are available in American FactFinder for 36 tribes or Selected American Indian categories:

• Apache
• Blackfeet
• Cherokee
• Cheyenne
• Chickasaw
• Chippewa
• Chocktaw
• Colville
• Comanche
• Cree
• Creek
• Crow
• Delaware
• Houma
• Iroquois
• Kiowa
• Latin American (Aztec, Inca, Mayan, etc.)
• Lumbee
• Menominee
• Navajo
• Osage
• Ottawa
• Paiute
• Pima
• Potawatomi
• Pueblo
• Puget Sound Salish
• Seminole
• Shoshone
• Sioux
• Tohomo O'Odham
• Ute
• Yakama
• Yaqui
• Yuman
• All other

These tribes were selected based on a 1990 population threshold of 7,500.

America's Labor Market Information System (ALMIS)
ALMIS is a centralized database that has been developed for the maintenance of labor market and occupational information. It is available to the States and must be packaged with any of number of internet and client/server applications or a State-customized application.

Asian
Self-identification among people of Asian descent.

In 1997, the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) revised the standards for how the Federal government would collect and present data on race and ethnicity. The new guidelines reflect "the increasing diversity of our Nation's population, stemming from growth in interracial marriages and immigration."

These new guidelines revised some of the racial categories used in 1990 and preceding censuses and allowed respondents to report as many race categories as were necessary to identify themselves on the Census 2000 questionnaire.

These are the 17 detailed Asian race and ethnic categories used in displaying data from Census 2000:

• Asian Indian
• Bangladeshi
• Cambodian
• Chinese, except Taiwanese
• Filipino
• Hmong
• Indonesian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Laotian
• Malaysian
• Pakistani
• Sri Lankan
• Taiwanese
• Thai
• Vietnamese
• Other Asian

Asian-American
People with Asian or Pacific Island origins. For more detail, see Race.

Average
The number found by dividing the sum of all quantities by the total number of quantities.

Average Earnings Per Job
A statistical measurement calculated by dividing total earnings by the number of jobs.

Auxiliary Employment
A unit which is primarily engaged in performing services for other units of the same company rather than for other companies or the general public. In the NAICS coding system, these establishments are classified according to the services they provide. Examples of auxiliary establishments are central administrative offices; research, development or testing labs; warehouses; and power plants.

Balance of State Area 1
Before 2005
A geographic area, containing the following counties: Benton, Carroll, Fountain, Jasper, LaPorte, Montgomery, Newton, Pulaski, Starke, Warren, and White.

2005 designations
A geographic area, containing the following counties: Adams, Cass, DeKalb, Fulton, Huntington, Kosciusko, Lagrange, Marshall, Miami, Noble, Pulaski, Starke, Steuben, Wabash, and White.

Balance of State Area 2
Before 2005 A geographic area, containing the following counties: Blackford, Cass, Fayette, Fulton, Grant, Henry, Jay, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Marshall, Miami, Noble, Randolph, Rush, Steuben, Union, Wabash, and Wayne.

2005 designations
A geographic area, containing the following counties: Blackford, Clinton, Decatur, Fayette, Fountain, Grant, Henry, Jay, Montgomery, Parke, Randolph, Rush, Union, Warren, and Wayne.

Balance of State Area 3
Before 2005
A geographic area, containing the following counties: Bartholomew, Brown, Decatur, Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Ripley, Switzerland, and Washington.

2005 designations
A geographic area, containing the following counties: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, Perry, Pike, Ripley, Scott, Spencer, and Switzerland.

Balance of State Area 4
Before 2005
A geographic area, containing the following counties: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Gibson, Knox, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, Owen, Parke, Perry, Pike, Putnam, Spencer, and Sullivan.

Base Period
A specified period of 12 consecutive months or, in some States, 52 weeks preceding the beginning of a benefit year during which an individual must have the required employment and/or wages in order to establish entitlement to compensation or allowances under an applicable program.

Base Year
See Base Period.

BEA
Bureau of Economic Analysis. A Federal statistical agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce responsible for estimation of Gross Domestic Product. Data from the Current Employment Statistical and the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) programs are used in the Gross Domestic Product estimates.

BEA Economic Areas
BEA's economic areas define the relevant regional markets surrounding metropolitan or micropolitan statistical areas. They consist of one or more economic nodes—metropolitan or micropolitan statistical areas that serve as regional centers of economic activity—and the surrounding counties that are economically related to the nodes.

BEA Regional Facts (BEARFACTS)
BEA Regional Facts consist of computer-generated narratives for states, counties, metropolitan statistical areas, and BEA Economic Areas. The narratives describe an area's personal income using current estimates, growth rates, and a breakdown of the sources of personal income. BEARFACTS are available for states, based on the latest published state annual estimates. BEARFACTS are also available for counties, metropolitan statistical areas, and BEA economic areas, based on the latest published local area personal income estimates.

Benchmarking
The processes of re-estimating statistics as more complete data become available. Estimates are usually calculated using only a sample of the universe (total count). Therefore, benchmarking allows for correction of estimating errors. Substate estimates are then forced to add to the individual state estimate. At the same time revisions are made to incorporate any changes in the inputs, such as revision in the Current Employment Statistics based employment figures, corrections in UI claims counts, and updated historical relationships. New benchmark levels are introduced on an annual basis.

Benchmark Employment
Related to the process of benchmarking, it is the period of time that identifies the benchmark period; in many data collection programs, it is the month of March.

Benefit Year
A period, generally of 52 weeks, during which an individual claimant may receive his/her maximum potential benefit amount.

Benefits
Non-wage compensation provided to employees. The National Compensation Survey groups benefits into five categories:

1. Paid leave (vacations, holidays, sick leave)
2. supplementary pay (premium pay for overtime and work on holidays and weekends, shift differentials, nonproduction bonuses)
3. retirement (defined benefit and defined contribution plans)
4. insurance (life insurance, health benefits, short-term disability, and long-term disability insurance)
5. legally required benefits (Social Security and Medicare, Federal and State unemployment insurance taxes, and workers' compensation).

Blue collar and service occupations (National Compensation Survey). Includes precision production, craft, and repair occupations; machine operators and inspectors; transportation and moving occupations; handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers; and service occupations.

Block
A subdivision of a census tract (or, prior to 2000, a block numbering area), a block is the smallest geographic unit for which the Census Bureau tabulates 100-percent data. Many blocks correspond to individual city blocks bounded by streets, but blocks—especially in rural areas—may include many square miles and may have some boundaries that are not streets. The Census Bureau established blocks covering the entire nation for the first time in 1990. Previous censuses back to 1940 had blocks established only for part of the nation. Over 8 million blocks are identified for Census 2000.

BLS
Bureau of Labor Statistics; An agency of the U.S. Department of Labor, BLS is the States' federal government partner in the MLS Program, Occupational Employment Statistics (OES), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), Current Employment Statistics (CES), Consumer Price Index, and the National Compensation Survey, as it is in other Labor Market Information Federal-State cooperative statistical programs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. It functions under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Labor.

BLS Event
A layoff for which the total number of initial claims within a 5-week period meets or exceeds the BLS Trigger. A Confirmed BLS Event differs from a Potential BLS Event in that Number of Separations has been confirmed with the employer; a layoff for which the total number of initial claims meets or exceeds 50+ initial claims against an establishment during a 5-week period.

BLS Trigger
The number of initial claims within a consecutive 5-week period that indicates a potential mass layoff event. The trigger for a BLS event is currently set at 50 initial claims. Some states have an exception to this trigger level to track layoffs with fewer than 50 initial claims in five weeks. See State Trigger.

Bureau of the Census
Part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. It conducts censuses of population and housing every 10 years and of agriculture, business, governments, manufacturers, mineral industries, and transportation at 5-year intervals. The Census Bureau also conducts the monthly Current Population Survey, in cooperation with BLS. Data from this survey are the source of unemployment statistics.

Business Cycle
A periodically repeated sequence of fluctuations in the aggregate economy of an area, or the nation as a whole, varying in duration, but consisting of:

a) upturn, including recovery and prosperity;
b) cyclical peak;
c) downturn, including recession; and
d) cyclical trough.

Census
A complete enumeration, usually of a population, but also of businesses and commercial establishments, farms, governments, and so forth.

Census County Divisions (CCD)
Statistical subdivisions of counties in states where minor civil divisions were not suitable for presenting census data. In these states, the minor civil divisions are either too small, have lost nearly all meaning locally, or have frequent boundary changes. The Bureau of the Census has established CCD's as relatively permanent statistical areas in cooperation with state and local groups.

Census
Decennial
The census of population and housing, taken by the Census Bureau in years ending in 0 (zero). Article I of the Constitution requires that a census be taken every 10 years for the purpose of reapportioning the U.S. House of Representatives.

Economic
Collective name for the censuses of construction, manufactures, minerals, minority- and women-owned businesses, retail trade, service industries, transportation, and wholesale trade, conducted by the Census Bureau every five years, in years ending in 2 and 7.

Census Tracts
Census tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county. Census tracts are delineated for all metropolitan areas (MA) and other densely populated counties by local census statistical area committees following Census Bureau guidelines. Census tracts usually have between 2,500 and 8,000 persons and, when first delineated, are designed to be homogenous with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions. Census tracts do not cross county boundaries. The spatial size of census tracts varies widely depending on the density of settlement.

Central County
The county or counties of a Core Based Statistical Area containing a substantial portion of an urbanized area or urban cluster or both, and to and from which commuting is measured to determine qualification of outlying counties.

CES
Current Employment Statistics; The Current Employment Statistics Program is a monthly survey conducted by State employment security agencies in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The survey provides employment, hours, and earnings estimates based on payroll records of business establishments. The data from the Current Employment Statistics survey include series for total employment, number of women employed, number of production or nonsupervisory workers, average hourly earnings, average weekly hours, average weekly earnings, and average weekly overtime hours in manufacturing industries.

CEW
Covered Employment and Wages; Program administered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), sometimes referred to as the ES-202 program. Using quarterly data submitted by state agencies, BLS summarizes employment and wage data for workers covered by State unemployment insurance (UI) laws. Employment counts are available by industry group for the State and all Counties. Some employment data may be deemed confidential to avoid disclosure of operations of individual reporting units.

City
A type of incorporated place in 49 states and the District of Columbia. In 23 states and the District of Columbia, some or all cities are not part of any Minor Civil Division (MCD), and the Census Bureau also treats these as county subdivisions, statistically equivalent to MCDs.

Civilian Labor Force
Generally, civilian labor force includes all persons who are either working or looking for work. Specifically, it is composed of all civilians over 16 years of age who are either employed or unemployed, except:

• persons engaged in housework in their home,
• persons in school,
• persons with a new job not scheduled to begin for more than 30 days,
• persons unable to work because of long-term physical or mental illness,
• persons temporarily unable to work,
• retired persons,
• persons too old to work,
• persons doing less than 15 hours weekly of unpaid family work,
• seasonal workers surveyed in the off-season and not looking for work,
• inmates of institutions,
• persons not looking for work because they believe no jobs are available, and
• voluntarily idle persons.

Since the labor force includes both employed and unemployed, the unemployment rate is the ratio of unemployed in this category to the total number of individuals in this category. For example, if 4 million persons in a civilian labor force of 100 million are unemployed, the unemployment rate is 4 percent.

Civilian Noninstitutional Population
Included are persons 16 years of age and older residing in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, who are not inmates of institutions (e.g., penal and mental facilities, homes for the aged), and who are not on active duty in the Armed Forces.

Claimant
A person who makes a claim for unemployment insurance benefits under any State or Federal unemployment compensation programs.

Closure
Closure indicates that a firm has closed or plans to close permanently.

Cohort
A group of individuals or employers who share a common experience, such as a layoff.

Coincident Indicator
A statistic that has no value in predicting purposes, because the value changes at the same time as the economy in general. For example, many types of sales will peak out and bottom out simultaneously with overall economic conditions. Two related indicator concepts are LAGGING INDICATOR and LEADING INDICATOR.

Combined Statistical Area (CSA)
A geographic entity consisting of two or more adjacent Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) with employment interchange measures of at least 15. Pairs of CBSAs with employment interchange measures of at least 25 combine automatically. Pairs of CBSAs with employment interchange measures of at least 15, but less than 25, may combine if local opinion in both areas favors combination. (See also Core Based Statistical Area and Employment Interchange Measure)

Commuting Patterns
A labor market concept that refers to worker flows between municipalities and/or counties. Data representing commuting patterns is collected through the decennial census and is available for larger municipalities and counties; measures include the number of workers that travel to jobs between municipalities, counties, and states. County-level data include detailed flows between industries. Data on commuting patterns can reveal the most economically developed areas, such as those that draws large amounts of labor, or they may reveal the need for economic development, such as those counties which export large amounts of labor.

Confirmed Event
Any type of layoff event that has been confirmed via employer contact.

Consolidated metropolitan statistical area (CMSA)
A geographic entity defined by the federal Office of Management and Budget for use by federal statistical agencies. An area becomes a CMSA if it meets the requirements to qualify as a metropolitan statistical area, has a population of 1,000,000 or more, if component parts are recognized as primary metropolitan statistical areas, and local opinion favors the designation.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)
The Consumer Price Index measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative market basket of consumer goods and services. User fees (such as for water) and sales and excise taxes paid by the consumer are included; however, income taxes and investments (like stocks and life insurance) are not included.

The CPI-U includes expenditures by urban wage earners and clerical workers, professional, managerial, and technical workers, the self-employed, short-term workers, the unemployed, retirees and others not in the labor force.

The CPI-W includes only expenditures by those in hourly wage earning or clerical jobs.

Continued Claim
A claim filed after the initial claim, by mail or in person, certifying to a continuous spell of unemployment. A continued claim can be a waiting period credit or payment for one or more weeks of unemployment.

Core
A densely settled concentration of population, comprising either an urbanized area (of 50,000 or more population) or an urban cluster (of 10,000 to 49,999 population) defined by the Census Bureau, around which a Core Based Statistical Area is defined (See Core Based Statistical Area).

Core Based Statistical Area (CBSA)
A statistical geographic entity consisting of the county or counties associated with at least one core (urbanized area or urban cluster) of at least 10,000 population, plus adjacent counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured through commuting ties with the counties containing the core. Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas are the two categories of Core Based Statistical Areas (See also Metropolitan Statistical Area and Micropolitan Statistical Area)

Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA)
A cost-of-living index measures differences in the price of goods and services, and allows for substitutions to other items as prices change. A consumer price index measures a price change for a constant market basket of goods and services from one period to the next within the same city (or in the Nation). The CPIs are not true cost-of-living indexes and should not be used for place-to-place comparisons.

Covered Employment and Wage Program
Also known as 202. A Federal/State cooperative program that collects and compiles employment and wage data for workers covered by State unemployment insurance (UI) laws, and Federal civilian workers covered by unemployment compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE). The report is submitted quarterly.

CPI
See Consumer Price Index

Current Establishment Employment
Employment estimates for nonagricultural industries derived from a monthly survey of over 7,800 employing establishments. This includes full-time wage, part-time wage, and salaried workers who worked or received pay for the period, defined as the week that includes the 12th of the month.

Current Population Survey (CPS)
A national household survey conducted each month by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Information is gathered from a sample of 60,000 households (about 900 in Indiana) designed to represent the civilian noninstitutional population of persons 16 years old and older. The time period covered in the monthly survey is a calendar week. Since July 1955, the calendar week, Sunday through Saturday, which includes the 12th day of the month has been defined as the reference week. The actual survey is conducted during the following week, which is the week containing the 19th day of the month.

Current Transfer Receipts
Individuals from Businesses
Current transfer receipts of individuals from businesses consist of personal injury liability payments to individuals other than employees.

Nonprofit Institutions
These payments consist of the payments made by the federal government, state governments, local governments, and businesses to nonprofit organizations that serve individuals. These payments exclude federal government payments for work under research and development contracts.

Date of 1st Separation
The week-ending date of the first separation activity for a layoff event. It is automatically set to the week-ending date of the week in which the earliest unemployment insurance (UI) claims were established and should be verified/updated through the employer contact. The date of 1st separation must be less than or equal to the stop date for the layoff event.

DBA
Stands for "doing business as;" many companies use a DBA name.

Decennial
Occurring or being done every 10 years.

Delayed Filers
Unemployed workers from establishments covered by unemployment insurance that, despite having qualified earnings for benefits, delay filing claims or do not file at all.

Deliverable
Any product required to be delivered by the States to BLS. It is specified in the LMI cooperative agreement between the States and BLS.

Determine Potential Events
The initial identification process by which possible BLS, State, and Displaced Worker Events are first identified. These possible events must be confirmed by employer contact before they can be classified as confirmed extended mass layoff events.

Discouraged Workers
Persons, not included in the count of unemployed, who make no active attempt to find a job because they think none is available, or they believe they lack the skills necessary to compete in the labor market. Discouraged workers are considered to be not in the labor force.

Dislocated Worker
A dislocated worker is someone who has been permanently laid off, or has received a notice of termination or layoff from employment. The Department of Employment & Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, seeks to build up the labor market through the training of the workforce and the placement of workers in jobs through employment services and programs addressing dislocated workers.

Dislocated Worker Unit (DWU)
A state workforce unit providing employment and unemployment support and services to dislocated workers. This unit is part of a Federal-State Cooperative Agreement with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA). MLS provides the DWU with data used for assessing displaced worker determinations and planning services.

Dislocated workers
Category A
Workers who are laid off; or, whose employment was terminated; or, who received a notice of impending termination or layoff from employment, and who are eligible for or have exhausted their entitlement to unemployment compensation, and are unlikely to return to their previous industry or occupation.

Category B
Workers who are terminated or who received notices of termination of employment resulting from a permanent closure or any substantial layoff of a plant, facility or enterprise.

Disposable Personal Income
Disposable personal income is personal income less personal tax and non-tax payments. It is the income available to persons for spending or saving.

DOL
United States Department of Labor; Cabinet-level Federal agency which enforces laws protecting workers, promotes labor-management cooperation, sponsors employment training and placement services, oversees the unemployment insurance system, and produces statistics on the labor force and living conditions.

Domestic Relocation
The movement of work to other locations inside the U.S., either within the same company or to a different company. "Domestic relocation" can occur within the same company and involve movement of work to a different location of that company inside the U.S., or to a different company altogether within the U.S. See Movement of Work.

DPE
See Determine Potential Events.

Durable Goods
Manufactured items with a normal life expectancy of three years or more. Automobiles, furniture, household appliances and mobile homes are examples. Because of their nature, expenditures for durable goods are generally postponable. Consequently, durable goods sales are a more volatile component of consumer expenditures.

Duration of Employment
This is a measure of the number of full weeks that a person has been unemployed. BLS publishes several series on duration, showing the number unemployed for various lengths of time. There are also two published measures of average duration of unemployment: mean duration and median duration. Mean duration is the arithmetic average duration of unemployment in weeks; median duration is the midpoint of a distribution of weeks of unemployment.

DW
See Dislocated Worker.

DW Closure
An event that has been verified by an employer contact and to which all of the following apply:

• Pre-layoff employment is equal to or greater than 20, AND
• The employer has stated that the layoff is a permanent closure, AND
• The primary reason for separation is not due to a labor dispute, seasonal work, or a vacation period, AND

Either of the following is true:

• The establishment will remain open, but entire work site affected by layoffs has been closed or is planning to close, OR
• There is full closure of either a multi-unit or a single-unit establishment.

DW Event
An event that employer contact has indicated to be a DW Closure, DW Substantial Layoff or other DW Event. An event may be flagged as a Dislocated Worker Event in addition to being a BLS Event

DW Substantial Layoff
An event verified by an employer contact in which the following apply:

Either of the following is true:

• The number of separations is equal to or greater than 50 and the number of separations is greater than or equal to 33 percent of pre-layoff employment, OR
• The number of separations is greater than or equal to 500, AND
  The primary reason for separation is not a labor dispute, seasonal work, or a vacation period, AND
  The employer has stated that the layoff is permanent, AND
  Any one of the following is true:
  
  • Establishment and work sites are remaining open with no change to operating status, OR
  • Establishment and work sites are remaining open, but divisions within affected work sites have stopped or are planning to stop operations, or some shifts that affected work sites have been or are going to be permanently cut, OR
  • A single-unit establishment has been partially closed, OR
  • Worksite status information is not available.

DWD
Indiana Department of Workforce Development

DWU
See Dislocated Worker Unit.

Earnings
Remuneration (pay, wages) of a worker or group of workers for services performed during a specific period of time. The term invariably carries a defining word or a combination; e.g., straight-time average hourly earnings. Since a statistical concept is usually involved in the term and its variations, the producers and users of earnings data have an obligation to define them. In the absence of such definition, the following may serve as rough guides:

Hourly, daily, weekly, annual—Period of time to which earnings figures, as stated or computed, relate. The context in which annual earnings (sometimes weekly earnings) are used may indicate whether the reference includes earnings from one employer only or from all employment plus other sources of income;

Average—usually the arithmetic mean; that is, total earnings (as defined) of a group of workers (as identified) divided by the number of workers in the group;

Gross—usually total earnings, before any deductions (such as tax withholding) including, where applicable, overtime payments, shift differentials, production bonuses, cost-of-living allowances, commissions, etc.;

Straight-Time—usually gross earnings excluding overtime payments and (with variations at this point) shift differentials and other monetary payments.

Earnings Allowance
The amount prescribed by state unemployment compensation laws that a claimant may earn without any reduction in the weekly unemployment insurance (UI) benefit amount. This is also referred to as the forgiveness level for earnings.

Earnings Due To Employment
Any earnings, either from the regular employer or from odd jobs, which an unemployment insurance (UI) claimant may receive while certifying to a week of unemployment.

Economic Indicator
A set of data that serves as a tool for analyzing current economic conditions and future prospects. Usually classified according to their timing in relationship to the ups and downs of the business cycle, i.e., whether they anticipate (lead), coincide with, or lag behind general business conditions.

Economic Fluctuations
Variations above and below the trend line of an economy. These variations have long been referred to as business cycles, but because they are not limited to the business sector of an economy and because cycle suggests a regularity, which most investigators cannot find, many writers today use the expression economic fluctuations. Many theories are given to explain these fluctuations. Wars, of course, have a major influence on an economy, as do natural disasters such as storms or droughts. More subtle forces include changes of governments, the irregularity of major innovations, the phasing-out of products, and population growth.

Economic Resources
The basic inputs or component parts of an economy. They have long been recognized as land, labor, and capital; modern writers usually include entrepreneurial ability as a fourth economic resource.

Educational attainment
The highest diploma or degree, or level of work towards a diploma or degree, an individual has completed.

EIN
See Employer Identification Number.

Employed
Employed persons are all persons who, during the reference week (the week that includes the 12th of the month),

1. Did any work as paid employees, or who worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of their family, and
2. All those who were not working but who had jobs from which they were temporarily absent. Each employed person is counted only once, even if he or she holds more than one job.

Individuals 16 years old and over who worked for pay any time during the week which includes the 12th day of the month, or who worked unpaid for 15 hours or more in a family-owned business, and individuals who were temporarily absent from their jobs due to illness, bad weather, vacation, labor dispute, or personal reasons.

Excluded from the employed group are persons whose only activity consisted of work around the house (such as own home housework, painting or repairing own homes, or homes of close friends, etc.) and volunteer work for religious, charitable, and similar organizations.

Employer
A person or business that employees one or more people for wages or salary; the legal entity responsible for payment of quarterly unemployment insurance taxes or for reimbursing the state fund for unemployment insurance benefits costs in lieu of paying the quarterly taxes.

Employer Contact
The act of gathering information, usually by telephone, from the employers whose former employees' initial claims filings generated a Potential MLS or DW Event.

Employer Identification Number
A unique 9-digit number that the Federal Government (IRS) issues to identify individual firms doing business in the United States.

Employment and Training Administration (ETA)
An agency of the U.S. Department of Labor responsible for the oversight of the State Unemployment Insurance programs and job training and placement services provided by state employment security agencies. The displaced worker unit in each state operates under a Federal/State Cooperative agreement with ETA.

Employment Interchange Measure
A measure of ties between two adjacent entities. The employment interchange measure is the sum of the percentage of employed residents of the smaller entity who work in the larger entity and the percentage of employment in the smaller entity that is accounted for by workers who reside in the larger entity.

Employment-Population Ratio
The proportion of the population that is employed.

Enhanced Quarterly Unemployment Insurance File (EQUI)
This file contains identifying establishment information such as unemployment insurance (UI) account number, SIC (NAICS) Code, address, contact person, and employment data for every company that was in business or went out of business in a given quarter. The ES-202 program maintains this file. The EQUI is the source of the large and small establishment input files used by the MLS Program.

EQUI
See Enhanced Quarterly Unemployment Insurance File.

ES-202
A Federal/State cooperative program, which collects and compiles employment and wage data for workers covered by state unemployment insurance (UI) laws, and Federal civilian workers covered by UCFE. State employment security agencies collect and compile quarterly UI contribution reports, which are submitted by all employers. These data are maintained in the State in micro and macrodata forms, and are also shipped to BLS. Any data from this program may be generically referred to as "ES-202" data.

Escalator Clause
A provision in a labor contract that requires periodic adjustments of wages so as to maintain constant purchasing power per hour of work. These adjustments are independent of other wage changes, such as scheduled changes during the life of the contract. Most escalator clauses use a formula that is based on the consumer price index. Escalator clause is also called cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).

Establishment
An economic unit that produces goods or services, usually at a single physical location, and engaged in one or predominantly one activity.

Establishment employment
Known as Month 3 Employment on the EQUI file, this is the number of people who earned wages during the pay period that included the 12th day of the third month of the reference quarter.

ETA
See Employment and Training Administration.

Event
An event in MLS may be any one of the following types:

• BLS-only
• BLS and DW
• DW-only
• State-only
• State and DW

Event Identifier
Used in MLS in conjunction with the unemployment insurance (UI) number to identify an event.

Event Number Of Collection Weeks
The number of weeks for which initial claims will continue to be associated with a specific event.

Exhaustee
A person who has exhausted all unemployment insurance (UI) benefits and is no longer eligible for any benefits.

Extended Mass Layoff Event
Fifty or more initial claims filed against an establishment during a 5-week period, with at least 50 workers separated for more than 30 days, as confirmed by the employer during the employer contact.

Family Assistance
See Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)

Federal Education and Training Assistance
Federal education and training assistance consists of the following:

Federal fellowships
These benefits consist of the payments to outstanding science students who receive National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, the subsistence payments to the cadets at the six state maritime academies, and the payments for all other federal fellowships.

Higher education student assistance
These benefits consist of the federal payments, called Pell Grants, for an undergraduate education for students with low incomes.

Job Corps payments
These benefits are primarily the allowances for living expenses received by economically disadvantaged individuals who are between the ages of 16 and 21 and who are enrolled in the designated vocational and educational training programs. These benefits also include the adjustment allowances received by trainees upon the successful completion of their training.

Interest payments on guaranteed student loans
These payments are made by the Department of Education to commercial lending institutions on behalf of the individuals who receive low-interest, deferred-payment loans from these institutions in order to pay the expenses of higher education.

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)
A numeric coding system that identifies States by a 2-digit code and counties by a 3-digit code. This coding system also applies to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands; pseudo-codes are assigned to Canada and Mexico. A code of 99 indicates that the FIPS is unknown. It is the standard for information processing issued by the National Bureau of Standards in the U.S. Department of Commerce

FEIN
See Employer Identification Number.

Final Payment
The last payment to a claimant which exhausts the individual's maximum potential benefit entitlement under a specific program.

FIPS
See Federal Information Processing Standards .

FIPS Code
Numerical code assigned to a county or geographical area. See Federal Information Processing Standards.

Firm
A business entity, corporate or otherwise. May consist of one or several establishments.

First (1st) Quartile
The 1st quartile is the point in a given distribution at which 25% of the observations fall below that point and 75% of the observations fall above it.

Food Stamps
These benefits are measured as the value of the food stamps issued to qualifying low-income individuals in order to supplement their ability to purchase food. Eligibility is determined by the state authorities' interpretation of federal regulations; the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pays the cost of the stamps.

Frictional Unemployment
Frictional unemployment is the result of inefficient labor markets. Frictional unemployment occurs when someone leaves one job but has not yet begun another job.

Full Time Employment
Defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as employment of 35 hours or more in a week.

Gross Domestic Product
The market value of all final goods and services produced (in a particular period) in the United States, regardless of who owns the resources.

Gross National Product
The market value of all final goods and services produced (in a particular period) with labor and property supplied by U.S. residents.

Growth Rate (For Long Term/Short Term Projections)
The percentage change of job openings created due to newly created jobs.

Goods Producing Industries
Includes manufacturing, construction, and natural resources and mining.

High School Graduate or Higher
Includes persons whose highest degree was a high school diploma or its equivalent, persons who attended college or professional school, and persons who received a college, university, or professional degree. Persons who reported completing the 12th grade but not receiving a diploma are not included.

Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity
Refers to persons who identified themselves in the enumeration process as being Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino. Persons of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity may be of any race.

Household
As defined by the Census Bureau, all persons who occupy a housing unit. A housing unit is a room or group of rooms intended for occupancy as separate living quarters and having either a separate entrance or complete cooking facilities for the exclusive use of the occupants.

Housing Unit
A house, apartment, mobile home or trailer, a group of rooms or a single room occupied or intended to be occupied as separate living quarters.

Inactive Event
An MLS event for which continued claims data are no longer collected. This may be due to the following reasons:

1. Each claimant associated with the event has either received a final payment or has filed another initial claim (and is therefore no longer part of this event).
2. More than five calendar quarters have elapsed since the stop date of the event.

Income Maintenance Benefits
Income maintenance benefits consist largely of supplemental security income payments, family assistance, food stamp payments, and other assistance payments, including general assistance.

Industries by Job
Industries by job incorporates the results of Indiana's latest industry-occupational matrix to provide the base year and long term projection of occupational employment across industries. Jobs are classified by occupation and by industry. For example, there were over 18,000 auto mechanics employed in Indiana in 1996. This figure is the total for all industries. However, in what industries were these auto mechanics employed? Forty-two percent worked in auto dealers and service stations. Twenty-four percent worked in auto repair services. Twenty percent were self-employed. The remaining 14 percent worked in other industries.

Industry
A group of establishments that produce similar products or provide similar services. For example, all establishments that manufacture automobiles are in the same industry. A given industry, or even a particular establishment in that industry, might have employees in dozens of occupations. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) groups similar establishments into industries. NAICS replaces the former Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system.

Initial claim
A notice of unemployment filed to request a determination of eligibility for unemployment insurance (UI) compensation or for a subsequent period of unemployment within a benefit year or period of eligibility. There are three types of initial claims critical to the MLS Program (new, additional, and reopened claims).

1. New claim: The first unemployment claim filed to request a determination of entitlement and eligibility for UI compensation. It serves as notice of a new spell of unemployment following a period of employment in a covered industry. The new initial claim starts the benefit year for a claimant and initiates the monetary and non-monetary determination processes.
2. Additional claim: A second or subsequent unemployment claim filed within an established benefit year or period of eligibility when there has been intervening employment.
3. Reopened claim: A second or subsequent unemployment claim filed within an established benefit year or period of eligibility when there has been an interruption in Ul eligibility for some reason other than employment.
4. Transitional claim: An administrative claim filed to establish a new benefit year within a 7-day period immediately following the ending date of the previous benefit year. A re-determination of claimant eligibility for UI compensation is also initiated with this claim. A transitional claim reflects a claimant that was already filing continued claims but had not exhausted their weekly benefit eligibility when the old benefit year expired. Since it does not reflect a new spell of unemployment for the claimant, transitional claims are excluded from MLS initial claims for determining potential layoff events.

For MLS, initial claims include new and additional claims as well as claims pending appeal.

Initial Claim Year-Week
The year and week in which the initial claim is filed (yyyyww).

Insured Unemployment
Unemployment during a week for which waiting period credit or benefits are claimed under the regular compensation programs, supplemental extended benefit programs, or the railroad unemployment insurance program.

Job leavers
Unemployed persons who quit or otherwise terminated their employment voluntarily and immediately began looking for work.

Job losers
Unemployed persons who involuntarily lost their last job or who had completed a temporary job. This includes persons who were on temporary layoff expecting to return to work, as well as persons not on temporary layoff. (See Unemployed persons.) Those not on temporary layoff include permanent job losers and persons whose temporary jobs had ended. (See Permanent job losers.)

Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA)
This act became effective on October 13, 1982, and provided job training services for economically disadvantaged adults, youth dislocated workers, and others who face significant employment barriers. JTPA sought to move jobless individuals into permanent self-sustaining employment. It established the initial requirement for standardized reporting of mass layoffs and plant closings. JTPA was superseded by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998.

Job Wages
In the job wages topic, wages for the OES survey are straight-time, gross pay, exclusive of premium pay. Included in the collection of wage data are:

• Base rate
• Cost-of-living allowances
• Guaranteed pay
• Hazardous-duty pay
• Incentive pay including commissions and production bonuses
• On-call pay

Excluded from the wage data are :

• Back pay
• Jury duty pay
• Overtime pay
• Severance pay
• Shift differentials
• Nonproduction bonuses
• Tuition reimbursements

Jobs by Industry
Jobs by industry incorporates the results of Indiana's latest industry-occupational matrix to provide the base year industry staffing and the long term projections of that staffing pattern. Jobs are classified by occupation and by industry. Reported occupational employment is the total for that industry when looking at jobs by industry. For example, there were more than 113,000 people employed in the transportation equipment manufacturing industry in Indiana in 1996, which was considered total employment for that industry. Within transportation equipment manufacturing, there were 49 auto mechanics, which was the total number of auto mechanics for that industry in 1996. In addition to auto mechanics, there were other kinds of occupations in transportation equipment manufacturing, and all these together comprise the occupational staffing pattern for Indiana's transportation equipment manufacturing industry.

JTPA
See Job Training Partnership Act

No entries for this letter.

Labor Force
Defined as all persons 16 years of age or over within a specific geographic area who are either employed or unemployed. Total Labor Force includes the civilian labor force and members of the Armed Forces stationed either in the United States or abroad, counted by their place of residence. Civilian Labor Force comprises the total of all civilians in the labor force. For statistical purposes, the labor force is the sum of persons employed and persons unemployed and looking for work.

Labor Market
The economic transactions involving the hiring of people on the one side and the selling of one's labor on the other side. Labor market does not refer to a physical marketplace.

Labor Force Participation Rate
The proportion of the total civilian noninstitutional population or of a demographic subgroup of that population classified as "in the labor force."

Labor Market Area or Labor Area
A geographical area consisting of a central city or cities and the surrounding territory within commuting distance. It is an economically integrated geographical unit within which workers may readily change jobs without changing their place of residence. Labor areas generally contain one or more counties.

Labor Market Areas (LMAs) are the basic substate geographic areas used for LAUS estimation. MSAs and PMSAs defined by OMB are designated as "major" LMAs for the LAUS program. All non-metropolitan areas within each state are grouped into "small" LMAs, usually consisting of one or more counties or county equivalents. The metropolitan, micropolitan, and small labor market area definitions contained were introduced with labor force estimates for January 2005. The previous major revision of labor market area definitions was implemented in 1994. Labor market area definitions are updated on an annual basis, and changes to area definitions and titles are introduced with the labor force estimates for the following January. In order to maintain a consistent time series, data for labor market areas generally are reconstructed back to January 1990 or as far back as practicable.

Labor Surplus Area
A civil jurisdiction classified as a labor surplus area when its average unemployment rate is at least 20 percent above the average unemployment for all states (plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) during the previous two calendar years. During periods of high national unemployment, the 20 percent ratio is disregarded and an area is classified as a labor surplus area if its unemployment during the previous two calendar years was 10 percent or more. This designation allows establishments in the area preference in bidding for certain federal contracts.

Lagging Indicator
A statistic that does not change until after the economy in general has changed. For example, the value of construction completed is a lagging indicator because the main effect on the economy occurred when plans were announced and contracts let and during the peak of construction activity.

LAUS
See Local Area Unemployment Statistics

Layoff event (confirmed)
A layoff event in MLS is defined as 50 or more initial claims (20 or more for State Event) filed against an establishment during a 5-week period, with the separations lasting longer than 30 days as specified by the employer in the employer contact.

Layoff status
Indicates whether a layoff occurred and identifies its duration:

1. Closure indicates that a firm has closed or plans to close permanently
2. Permanent layoff has a duration greater than 30 days.
3. Temporary layoff has a duration of 30 days or less.

LED
See Local Employment Dynamics

LEHD
See Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics

Liable State
Any state against which a worker files a claim for unemployment insurance (UI) compensation through the facilities of another (agent) state is the liable state. The state location of the establishment in which wage credits are earned is the liable state.

LLD
See Longitudinal Linked Database

LMI
Labor Market Information

Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS)
This program is a Federal-State cooperative effort in which monthly estimates of total employment and unemployment are prepared for approximately 6,800 areas:

1. Census regions and divisions
2. States
3. Metropolitan areas (primary metropolitan statistical areas and metropolitan statistical areas)
4. Nonmetropolitan labor market areas
5. Counties and county equivalents
6. Cities of 25,000 population or more
7. Cities and towns in New England regardless of population

These estimates are key indicators of local economic conditions.

Local Employment Dynamics
A voluntary partnership between state labor market information agencies and the U.S. Census Bureau to develop new information about local labor market conditions at low cost, with no added respondent burden, and with the same confidentiality protections afforded census and survey data.

Local Office
One of the physical locations located throughout the state that individuals go to receive employment and unemployment related services.

Location Quotient
Ratio that compares the concentration of a resource or activity, such as employment, in a defined area to that of a larger area or base. For example, location quotients can be used to compare state employment by industry to that of the nation.

Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics
A program within the U.S. Census Bureau. This program uses modern statistical and computing techniques to combine federal and state administrative data on employers and employees with core Census Bureau censuses and surveys while protecting the confidentiality of people and firms that provide the data.

Longitudinal Linked Database
A software application that provides a platform to conduct long term studies of the employment and wages outcomes of MLS cohorts, unemployment insurance (UI) cohorts, alternative cohorts, and employer cohorts. This software can be utilized as an enhancement to the MLS data in combination with data from other sources.

Main County
A county that acts as an employment center within a core based statistical area that has a core with a population of at least 2.5 million. A main county serves as the basis for defining a metropolitan division.

Manufacturing
This industry group includes

1. Durable goods such as lumber and wood, furniture and fixtures, primary metal, fabricated metal, machinery, electric and electronic equipment, transportation equipment, motor vehicles and equipment, stone, clay, and glass, and instruments
2. Non durable goods such as food, textile mills, apparel, paper, chemicals, petroleum, rubber and plastics.

Market Basket
The market basket is a package of goods and services that consumers purchase for day-to-day living. The weight of each item is based on the amount of expenditure reported by a sample of households.

Mass Layoff Statistics Program
A Federal-State cooperative program that uses a standardized, automated approach to identify, describe, and track the impact of major job cutbacks. The MLS Program was developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in response to Section 462(e) of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA ), PL 97-300. Language found in Section 309 of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA ), PL 105-220, replaces the reference to JTPA.

Mean
The mean is another term for average. In a given distribution, the mean is calculated by adding the value of the observations, then dividing that sum by the number of observations in that distribution.

Median
The median is the midpoint of a given distribution, the point at which half of the observations in the distribution fall below it and half of the observations fall above it.

Medical Benefits (Government Transfer Payments)
Medical benefits include:

• Medicare benefits: these benefits are federal government payments made through intermediaries to beneficiaries for the care provided to individuals under the medicare program.
• Public assistance medical care: these medical benefits are received by low-income individuals. These payments consist mainly of the payments made through intermediaries to the vendors for care provided to individuals under the federally assisted, state-administered medicaid program and state children's health insurance program (SCHIP) and under the general assistance medical programs of state and local governments.
• Military medical insurance benefits: these benefits are vendor payments made under the TriCare Management Program, formerly called the Civilian Health and Medical Plan of the Uniformed Services program, for the medical care of dependents of active duty military personnel and of retired military personnel and their dependents at nonmilitary medical facilities.

Medicare Benefits
These benefits are federal government payments made through intermediaries to beneficiaries for the care provided to individuals under the provisions of the medicare program.

MEEI
See Multi-establishment Employer Indicator Code.

Merge Event
The combination of two or more layoff events that, after employer contact, are determined to be a single layoff event for the establishment.

Metropolitan Division
A county or group of counties within a core based statistical area that contains a core with a population of at least 2.5 million. A metropolitan division consists of one ore more main/secondary counties that represent an employment center or centers, plus adjacent counties associated with the main county or counties through commuting ties (See Main County, Secondary County, and Core Based Statistical Area).

In Indiana, there is one Metropolitan Division, the Gary Metropolitan Division, which contains Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter Counties.

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
A core based statistical area associated with at least one urbanized area that has a population of at least 50,000. The MSA comprises the central county or counties containing the core, plus adjacent outlying counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the central county as measured through commuting (See Central County and Core Based Statistical Area).

In Indiana, there are 16 Metropolitan Statistical Areas.

1. Anderson MSA - includes Madison County.
2. Bloomington MSA - includes Greene, Monroe, and Owen Counties.
3. Chicago-Joliet-Naperville MSA - includes Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter counties in Indiana; Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties in Illinois; and Kenosha County in Wisconsin
4. Cincinnati MSA - includes Dearborn, Franklin, and Ohio Counties in Indiana, Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, and Pendleton Counties in Kentucky, and Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren Counties in Ohio.
5. Columbus MSA - includes Bartholomew County.
6. Elkhart-Goshen MSA - includes Elkhart County.
7. Evansville MSA - includes Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, and Warrick Counties in Indiana, and Henderson and Webster Counties in Kentucky.
8. Fort Wayne MSA - includes Allen, Wells, and Whitley Counties.
9. Indianapolis-Carmel MSA - includes Boone, Brown, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, Putnam, and Shelby Counties.
10. Kokomo MSA - includes Howard and Tipton Counties.
11. Lafayette MSA - includes Benton, Carroll, and Tippecanoe Counties.
12. Louisville KY-IN MSA - includes Clark, Floyd, Harrison, and Washington Counties in Indiana, and Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Meade, Nelson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, and Trimble Counties in Kentucky.
13. Michigan City-LaPorte MSA - includes LaPorte County.
14. Muncie MSA - includes Delaware County.
15. South Bend-Mishawaka MSA - includes St. Joseph County in Indiana and Cass County in Michigan.
16. Terre Haute MSA - includes Clay, Sullivan, Vermillion, and Vigo Counties.

Micropolitan Statistical Area
A core based statistical area associated with at least one urban cluster that has a population of at least 10,000, but less than 50,000. The Micropolitan Statistical Aea comprises the central county or counties containing the core, plus adjacent outlying counties having a high degree of social and economic integration with the central county as measured through commuting. (See Central County and Core Based Statistical Area).

In Indiana, there are 25 Micropolitan Statistical Areas.

1. Angola - includes Steuben County.
2. Auburn - includes DeKalb County.
3. Bedford - includes Lawrence County.
4. Connersville - includes Fayette County.
5. Crawfordsville - includes Montgomery County.
6. Decatur - includes Adams County.
7. Frankfurt - includes Clinton County.
8. Greensburg - includes Decatur County.
9. Huntington - includes Huntington County.
10. Jasper - includes Dubois and Pike Counties.
11. Kendallville - includes Noble County.
12. Logansport - includes Cass County.
13. Madison - includes Jefferson County.
14. Marion - includes Grant County.
15. New Castle - includes Henry County.
16. North Vernon - includes Jennings County.
17. Peru - includes Miami County.
18. Plymouth - includes Marshall County.
19. Richmond - includes Wayne County.
20. Scottsburg - includes Scott County.
21. Seymour - includes Jackson County.
22. Vincennes - includes Knox County.
23. Wabash - includes Wabash County.
24. Warsaw - includes Kosciusko County.
25. Washington - includes Daviess County.

Military Medical Insurance Benefits
Military medical insurance benefits consist of payments made under the TriCare Management Program, formerly called the Civilian Health and Medical Plan of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) program, for the medical care of dependents of active duty military personnel and of retired military personnel and their dependents at nonmilitary medical facilities.

MLS
See Mass Layoff Statistics Program

Monetary Determination
A written notice issued to inform an individual whether or not he/she meets the employment and wage requirements necessary to establish entitlement to compensation under a specific unemployment insurance program and, if entitled, the weekly and maximum benefit amounts the individual may receive.

Movement of Work
The relocation of work from one worksite to another either within the company or by contract with another company. The term "moving work" means that the company experiencing the layoff has reassigned work activities that were performed at a worksite by the company's employees

1. to another worksite within the company;
2. to another company under formal arrangements at the same worksite; or
3. to another company under formal arrangements at another worksite. The type of work activities subject to movement can include accounting, customer service, cleaning, warehousing, etc.

Multi-Establishment
An unemployment insurance (UI) account which consists of more than one establishment.

Multi-Establishment Employer Indicator Code
A numeric code on the EQUI file that indicates whether the unemployment insurance (UI) account includes one or multiple establishments. If the account includes more than one establishment, the MEEI code indicates how the establishments are reported. This information is especially useful in MLS when determining plant closures.

Multiple Worksite Report (MWR)
The Multiple Worksite Report (MWR) form is sent to employers by the ES-202 program. It asks multi-location employers to provide employment and wage data for each establishment (by industry and geographic area) that is covered under one unemployment insurance (UI) account in a state. Each of these locations is assigned a reporting unit number (RUN). In the MLS Program, the units are not broken out by RUN; rather, the master record for the UI account is used. (See Multi-establishment Employer Indicator Code.)

MWR
See Multiple Worksite Report

NAFTA-Trade Adjustment Assistance (NAFTA-TAA)
A program that provides assistance to workers who lose their jobs or whose hours of work and wages are reduced as a result of an increase in imports. The program was authorized by the Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Act (EDWAA).

NAICS
See North American Industrial Classification System

National Reserve Account (NRA)
States and sub-state areas may apply for NRA grants from the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration (ETA ) if they need additional funds to administer and operate projects for eligible workers who have been dislocated due to mass layoffs, plant closure, disasters, and Federal Government Actions. The NRA grants program is part of the EDWAA Act.

Never Filers
Unemployed workers from establishments covered by unemployment insurance that, despite having qualified earnings for benefits, delay filing claims or do not file at all.

New Claim
The first unemployment claim filed to request a determination of entitlement and eligibility for unemployment insurance (UI) compensation. It serves as notice of a new spell of unemployment following a period of employment in a covered industry. The new initial claim starts the benefit year for a claimant and initiates the monetary and non-monetary determination processes.

New Jobs (for Long Term/Short Term Projections)
The number of jobs openings due to newly created positions.

90th Percentile
The 90th percentile is the point in a given distribution at which 90% of the observations fall below that point and 10% of the observations fall above it.

Nonagricultural Wage and Salary Employment
Includes all full-time and part-time employees of all classes (including employees on paid vacation or paid sick leave) who work in or receive compensation from nonagricultural establishments for any part of the pay period that includes the 12th day of the month. It does not include pensioners, members of the armed forces, self-employed or unpaid family workers, or persons on leave of absence without pay. These statistics are collected in coordination with the CES program (Other term: NFWS, Nonfarm Wage and Salary)

Nondurable Goods
Manufactured items that generally last for only a short time (three years or less). Food, beverages, apparel and gasoline are common examples. Because of their nature, nondurable goods are generally purchased when needed.

Non-Monetary Determination
The process of determining whether an unemployment insurance (UI) claimant meets legal criteria other than wage credits under state UI law. This is usually concerned with:

1. the reason the claimant left the job (separation issues) and
2. the job search (whether the claimant is able, available, and actively seeking work).

North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS)
North American Industrial Classification System: An economic classification system that replaces the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) for statistical purposes. NAICS is a system for classifying establishments by type of economic activity. Its purposes are:

1. to facilitate the collection, tabulation, presentation, and analysis of data relating to establishments, and
2. to promote uniformity and comparability in the presentation of statistical data describing the economy. NAICS will be used by Federal statistical agencies that collect or publish data by industry. It is also expected to be widely used by State agencies, trade associations, private businesses, and other organizations.

NAICS Structure
NAICS is organized in a hierarchical structure, much like the existing U.S. SIC. The 1987 SIC employs a 4-digit coding system, in which the first two digits designate a "major group" that in NAICS is known as a "subsector," the third digit designates the industry group, and the fourth digit designates the industry. For example, in the 1987 U.S. SIC, the two digits 26 designate the major group for the manufacture of "Paper and Allied Products," within which the digits 262 designate an industry group titled "Paper Mills," which contains one 4-digit industry, SIC 2621, also titled "Paper Mills."

NAICS employs a 6-digit coding system in which the first two digits designate the sector (the NAICS term "sector" is replacing the term "division" used in the 1987 SIC), the third digit designates the subsector, the fourth digit designates the industry group, the fifth digit represents the NAICS industry (the most detailed level at which comparable data will be available for Canada, Mexico, and the United States), and the sixth digit designates individual country-level national industries. Using the paper mill example above, in NAICS United States industry 322121 the two initial digits 32 designate a manufacturing sector and the first three digits 322 designate the paper manufacturing subsector. Within 322 is the industry group 3221, Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills, within which is NAICS industry 32212, Paper Mills. There are two U.S. national industries under Paper Mills: 322121, Paper (except Newsprint) Mills, and 322122, Newsprint Mills.

Thus NAICS will have a six-digit coding system in which the first two digits designate the NAICS sector, and the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth digits designate, respectively, the NAICS subsector, industry group, and industry, and U.S. national industry (if any). Although the 1997 NAICS United States industries will now have six digits compared with four digits for 1987 U.S. SIC industries, there will not be a uniform corresponding increase in classification detail that the 1997 NAICS United States provides compared with the 1987 U.S. SIC. As explained above, the two additional digits primarily allow for more sectors and for individual country-level detailed national industries.

Not in the Labor Force
Includes all persons 16 years old and over who are not employed or unemployed. This group consists mainly of students, persons whose only activity is keeping house, retired workers, seasonal workers during an "off" season who are not looking for work, inmates in institutions, disabled persons, and unpaid persons working less than 15 hours a week in a family business or farm.

Not seasonally adjusted
This term is used to describe data series that have not been subjected to the seasonal adjustment process. In other words, the effects of regular or seasonal patterns have not been removed from these series.

NRA
See National Reserve Account.

Number of collection weeks
The number of weeks that Initial Claims will continue to be associated with any type of layoff or closure event.

Occupation
A set of activities or tasks that employees are paid to perform. Employees that perform essentially the same tasks are in the same occupation, whether or not they work in the same industry. Some occupations are concentrated in a few particular industries; other occupations are found in many industries.

Occupational Employment Statistics (OES)
The Occupational Employment Statistics Program conducts a semi-annual mail survey designed to produce estimates of employment and wages for specific occupations. The OES program collects data on wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in order to produce employment and wage estimates for more than 700 occupations. Data from self-employed persons are not collected and are not included in the estimates. The OES program produces these occupational estimates by geographic area and by industry.

Occupational groups
A group of related occupations; examples: sales occupations and service occupations.

Occupational Outlook
A prediction of future job openings in specific career fields.

Occupational Training
Education and training to prepare for a particular occupation.

OES
See Occupational Employment Statistics

Offshoring
Movement of work to a different location of that company or to a different company altogether outside of the U.S. See Movement of Work

Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Benefits
These benefits, popularly known as social security, consist mainly of monthly benefits received by retired and disabled workers, dependents, and survivors and lump-sum payments received by survivors.

The state estimates are based on annual tabulations of payments from the Social Security Administration (SSA). The county estimates are based on SSA tabulations of the amount of monthly benefits paid to those in current-payment status on December 31 by county of residence of the beneficiaries.

One-Stop Career Center System
A career guidance system developed and operated by the employment security agency in each state. It organizes the fragmented array of employment and training services in the States into an integrated service delivery system for job-seekers and employers.

OOB
See Out-of-Business.

OOS
See Out-of-Scope.

Other DW Event
An event verified by an employer contact in which all of the following apply:

1. Pre-layoff employment equals zero for last reporting period, AND
2. Number of separations is greater than or equal to 50, AND
3. Primary reason for separation is not a labor dispute, seasonal nature of work, or a vacation period, AND
4. The employer has stated that the layoff is permanent for any of the following reasons:
• Establishment and work sites are remaining open with no change to operating status, OR
• Establishment and work sites are remaining open, but divisions within affected work sites have stopped or are planning to stop operations, or some shifts that affected work sites have been or are going to be permanently cut, OR
• A single-unit establishment has been partially closed, OR
• Worksite status information is not available.

Other Assistance to Veterans
These benefits consist of the state and local government payments of assistance to indigent veterans, and the state and local government payments of bonuses to veterans.

Other Government Retirement and Disability Insurance Benefits
Other government retirement and disability insurance benefits consist largely of temporary disability payments, pension benefit guaranty payments, and black lung payments.

Other Income Maintenance Benefits
Other income maintenance benefits consist largely of general assistance; expenditures for food under the supplemental program for women, infants, and children; refugee assistance; foster home care and adoption assistance; earned income tax credits; and energy assistance.

Other Transfer Receipts of Individuals from Governments
Other transfer receipts of individuals from governments consist largely of Bureau of Indian Affairs payments, education exchange payments, Alaska Permanent Fund dividend payments, compensation of survivors of public safety officers, compensation of victims of crime, disaster relief payments, compensation for Japanese internment, and other special payments to individuals.

Other Unemployment Compensation
Consists of trade readjustment allowance payments, Redwood Park benefit payments, public service employment benefit payments, and transitional benefit payments.

Outlying County
A county that qualifies for inclusion in a core based statistical area on the basis of commuting ties with the core based statistical area's central county or counties.

Out-Of-Business
Status assigned to an employer that was once active but has since permanently ceased to conduct business or perform services and industrial operations.

Out-Of-Scope
Status assigned to an establishment that does not fall within the scope of a survey. The reported NAICS, ownership code, or employment of an establishment may cause it to fall outside the scope of a survey.

Outsourcing
Movement of work to a different company altogether. The location of that company may be inside or outside of the U.S. See Movement of Work.

Overseas Relocation
The movement of work from within the U.S. to locations outside of the U.S. "Overseas relocation" can occur within the same company and involve movement of work to a different location of that company outside of the U.S., or to a different company altogether. See Movement of Work.

Ownership Code
A code that identifies the ownership of an establishment, as indicated below. This code is derived from information on the EQUI.

0 = Unknown
1 = Federal government
2 = State government
3 = Local government
5 = Private

Part Time Employment
Defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as employment between 1 and 34 hours per week.

Payroll employment (Current Employment Statistics)
Employment is the total number of persons on establishment payrolls employed full or part time who received pay for any part of the pay period which includes the 12th day of the month. Temporary and intermittent employees are included, as are any workers who are on paid sick leave, on paid holiday, or who work during only part of the specified pay period. A striking worker who only works a small portion of the survey period, and is paid, would be included as employed under the CES definitions. Persons on the payroll of more than one establishment are counted in each establishment.

Data exclude proprietors, self-employed, unpaid family or volunteer workers, farm workers, and domestic workers. Persons on layoff the entire pay period, on leave without pay, on strike for the entire period or who have not yet reported for work are not counted as employed. Government employment covers only civilian workers.

With the release of NAICS-based estimates in June 2003, the scope and definition of Federal Government employment estimates changed due to a change in source data and estimation methods. The previous series was an end-of-month federal employee count produced by the Office of Personnel Management, and it excluded some workers, mostly employees who work in Department of Defense-owned establishments such as military base commissaries. Beginning in June 2003, the CES national series began to include these workers. Also, Federal Government employment is now estimated from a sample of Federal establishments, is benchmarked annually to counts from unemployment insurance tax records, and reflects employee counts as of the pay period including the 12th day of the month, consistent with other CES industry series. The historical time series for Federal Government employment was revised to reflect these changes.

Per Capita Personal Income
This measure of income is calculated as the total personal income of the residents of an area divided by the population of the area. Total income includes wage and salary disbursements, other labor income, proprietors' income, rental income, dividends, personal interest income, and transfer payments—minus personal contributions for social insurance.

Per capita personal income is often used as an indicator of the quality of consumer markets and of the economic well-being of the residents of an area.

Percentile wage estimate
Shows what percentage of workers in an occupation earn less than a given wage and what percentage earn more. For example, a 25th percentile wage of $15.00 indicates that 25% of workers (in a given occupation in a given area) earn less than $15.00; therefore 75% of workers earn more than $15.00.

Permanent job losers
Unemployed persons whose employment ended involuntarily and who began looking for work.

Permanent Layoff
A layoff lasting more than 30 days. These include layoffs that take place on a recurring basis due to normal seasonal patterns.

Permanent Mass Layoff Event
A layoff situation involving at least 50 unemployment insurance (UI) claims against an establishment in a consecutive five-week period, and with at least 50 separations lasting more than 30 days, as specified by the employer.

Personal Current Transfer Receipts
This component of personal income refers to payments to persons for which no current services are performed. It consists of payments to individuals and to nonprofit institutions by Federal, state, and local governments and by businesses.

Government payments to individuals include retirement and disability insurance benefits, medical benefits (mainly Medicare and Medicaid), income maintenance benefits, unemployment insurance compensation, veterans benefits, and federal education and training assistance. Government payments to nonprofit institutions excludes payments by the federal Government for work under research and development contracts. Business payments to persons consists primarily of liability payments for personal injury and of corporate gifts to nonprofit institutions.

Personal Income
The personal income of an area is defined as the income that is received by, or on behalf of, all the individuals who live in the area; therefore, the estimates of personal income are presented by the place of residence of the income recipients.

Personal income consists of the income that is received by persons

• from participation in production
• from government and business transfer payments, and
• from government interest (which is treated like a transfer payment).

It is calculated as the sum of wage and salary disbursements, other labor income, proprietors' income with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments, rental income of persons with capital consumption adjustment, personal dividend income, personal interest income, and transfer payments to persons, less personal contributions for social insurance.

PIC
Private Industry Council

Plant Closing
A layoff situation involving at least 50 unemployment insurance (UI) claims against an establishment in a consecutive five-week period, and with at least 50 separations lasting more than 30 days, as specified by the employer in which all or part of a plant is moving or closing. See Permanent Mass Layoff Event.

Pool Account
A simulated unemployment insurance (UI) account number created as a substitute for an actual, valid UI account number. A pool account is utilized by a State's UI unit to hold a potential claimant's information when the actual Ul account number of the separating employer cannot be identified.

Population
All people, male and female, child and adult, living in a given geographic area.

Population Density
Population per unit of land area (total population / land area).

Postsecondary Education
All educational opportunities following high school including, but not limited to, four-year college, community college, proprietary school programs, apprenticeships, military occupational skill training and on-the-job training.

Potential State Event
An event in which {State Trigger Value} claims have been filed against an establishment during a 5-week period.

Pre-Layoff Employment
The total number of employees at the worksite prior to the layoff event, as reported by the respondent during employer contact. This value can equal zero if the employer cannot or will not provide the information.

Price Index
A price index is a tool that simplifies the measurement of price movements in a numerical series. Movements are measured with respect to the base period, when the index is set to 100.

Primary Reason For Separation
The principal reason for a layoff, as reported by the employer. Examples include contract completion, reorganization within the company, and financial difficulty. This information is obtained from the employer during employer contact.

Principal City
The largest city of a core based statistical area, plus additional cities that meet specified statistical criteria.

Private Household Workers
Persons who work for profit or fees, in private households, as child care workers, cooks, housekeepers or servants.

Producer Price Index (PPI)
A family of indexes that measure the average change over time in selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services. PPIs measure price change from the perspective of the seller. This contrasts with other measures that measure price change from the purchaser's perspective, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Sellers' and purchasers' prices may differ due to government subsidies, sales and excise taxes, and distribution costs.

Public Assistance Medical Care Benefits
Public assistance medical care benefits consists of Medicaid and other medical vendor payments.

Purchasing Power
A ratio of the amount of goods and services that a given amount of money will currently buy to the amount it would have bought in a specified base year. When consumer items are being considered, purchasing power is the reciprocal of the consumer price index. Sometimes purchasing power is used simply as a qualitative reference to the amount of goods and services a certain amount of money will buy.

Quarterly Workforce Indicators
A set of economic indicators — including employment, job creation, wages, and worker turnover — that can be queried by different levels of geography — state, county, metro, and workforce investment area — as well as by detailed industry, gender, and age of workers. You can query the data directly by using the QWI Online tool.

Quartile
A quartile is any of the three values which divide a sorted data set into four equal parts, so that each part represents 1/4th of the sample or population.

Thus:

• First quartile = cuts off lowest 25% of data = 25th percentile
• Second quartile = median = cuts data set in half = 50th percentile
• Third quartile = cuts off highest 25% of data, or lowest 75% = 75th percentile

QWI
See Quarterly Workforce Indicators

Race
Race is a self-identification data item in which respondents to the Census choose the race or races with which they most closely identify.

Railroad Retirement and Disability Benefits
These benefits are received by retired and disabled railroad employees and their survivors under the federal program of retirement insurance for railroad employees, who are not covered by OASDI.

Rapid Response
The activities of the State Dislocated Worker Unit (DWU) when it learns of a major layoff. Designed to speed services to potential claimants within a very short period of time, the DWU can respond with on-site services to assist workers facing job losses. The DWU may also help to set up a labor ­management committee at the worksite and/or assist in efforts to avert worker dislocation.

Rapid Response Unit
See Dislocated Worker Unit

Reason For Separation
See Primary Reason For Separation. The reason for separation during a layoff event is ascertained after employer contact. The codes and reasons are:

01 Automation
04 Bankruptcy
07 Business Ownership Change
10 Contract Cancellation
13 Contract Completed
16 Domestic Relocation*
19 Energy-Related
22 Environment-Related
25 Financial Difficulty
28 Import Competition
31 Labor Dispute
34 Material Shortage
37 Model Changeover
40 Natural Disaster
42 Non-natural Disaster
43 Overseas Relocation*
46 Plant or Machine Repair
49 Product Line Discontinued
52 Reorganization Within the Company
55 Seasonal
58 Slack Work
61 Vacation Period
64 Weather-Related
90 Other
96 Federal Government Cutbacks, Unspecified
97 Federal Government Cutbacks, Defense-related
98 Data Not Provided (Refusal)

* Reason invalid for events triggering after January 2004.

Receipts
from Businesses
Receipts from businesses consists mainly of corporate gifts of money, securities, and real property to nonprofit institutions that serve individuals.

from the Federal Government
These payments consist mainly of the payments to private nonprofit hospitals for hospital construction and the payments to private educational institutions on behalf of the recipients of federal fellowships, Pell grants, and other education and training programs.

from State and Local Governments
Receipts from state and local governments consist of state and local government payments to nonprofit institutions for education assistance and for employment and training.

Reference Week
The standard week for which data are collected. Typically, the reference week is the calendar week including the 12th day of the month. For unemployment insurance (UI) data, it is the certification period for initial and continued claims. In most states, the UI certification week is the Sunday through Saturday calendar week that includes the 12th day of the month. Exceptions are states with flexible benefit weeks and New York, whose week is Monday through Sunday.

Region — Midwest
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Reopened Claim
A second or subsequent unemployment claim filed within an established benefit year or period of eligibility when there has been an interruption in unemployment insurance (UI) eligibility for some reason other than employment.

Replacements (For Long Term/Short Term Projections)
The number of job openings that occur because of workers who leave their jobs to enter other occupations, retire, or leave the labor force for other reasons.

Reporting Unit Number (RUN)
To identify each individual establishment, state agencies assign a unique reporting unit number (RUN) to each establishment. This number, when combined with the state-specific unemployment insurance (Ul) account number, creates the "key field" to uniquely identify each establishment.

Retirement and Disability Insurance Benefits
Retirement and disability insurance benefits consist of old-age, survivors, and disability (OASDI) benefits; railroad retirement and disability benefits; federal and state workers' compensation; temporary disability benefits; black lung benefits; and Pension Benefit Guaranty benefits.

RUN
See Reporting Unit Number

Sample
A subset of a universe; usually selected randomly and considered representative of the universe.

Sample Frame
A listing of all units in the universe from which a sample can be drawn.

Seasonal Adjustment
The statistical modifications to a data series such as unemployment rates. Statistical modifications allow for a better analysis of the more important underlying reasons for month-to-month changes in joblessness. Otherwise the predictable fluctuations in joblessness, such as the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools, and other seasonal events will hide underlying joblessness trends that could be significant for interpreting an economic time series.

Seasonal Unemployment
Seasonal unemployment is very regular and predictable, occurring at the same basic time each year. Industries affected by seasonal unemployment include agricultural related industries, construction, and any industry affected by seasonal fluctuations in the demand for their products.

Secondary County
A county that acts as an employment center in combination with a main county or another secondary county within a core based statistical area that has a core with a population of at least 2.5 million. A secondary county serves as the basis for defining a Metropolitan Division, but only when combined with a main county or another secondary county.

Secondary Reason For Separation
Used to indicate that there is a consequential reason for a layoff as reported by the employer. An example would be a material shortage caused by a primary reason such as a natural disaster. This information is collected from the employer during employer contact.

Self-Employed Workers
Persons who work for profits or fees in their own unincorporated business, trade, or professional practice. Persons working in their own incorporated business are counted as wage and salary workers.

Separating Employer
The last employing unit (LEU) of a claimant. Within the MLS Program, the identification of the separating employer is made through the unemployment insurance (UI) account number.

Separations
The number of individuals who have become permanently displaced during a particular layoff event, as provided by the employer during employer contact. The number of separations, as reported by the employer, may exceed the number of initial claims shown for an event. This count includes only those that will be out for 30 days or more.

Service Producing Industries (NAICS-Based)
Includes trade, transportation, and utilities; information; financial activities; professional and business services; education and health services; leisure and hospitality; other services.

SIC
See Standard Industrial Classification.

SOC
See Standard Occupational Classification.

Spanish/Hispanic/Latino
For Census 2000 and the American Community Survey: People who identify with the terms "Hispanic" or "Latino" are those who classify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 or ACS questionnaire — "Mexican," "Puerto Rican," or "Cuban" — as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino."

Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any race.

Listed below are the 28 Hispanic or Latino categories displayed in Census 2000 tabulations:

• Mexican
• Puerto Rican
• Cuban
• Dominican Republic
• Central American:
• Costa Rican
• Guatemalan
• Honduran
• Nicaraguan
• Panamanian
• Salvadoran
• Other Central American
• South American:
• Argentinian
• Bolivian
• Chilean
• Colombian
• Ecuadorian
• Paraguayan
• Peruvian
• Uruguayan
• Venezuelan
• Other South American
• Other Hispanic or Latino:
• Spaniard
• Spanish
• Spanish American
• All other Hispanic or Latino

Split Event
A layoff event that is identified by the employer as two separate and distinct events for the same establishment. This occurs if, during the employer contact, it is discovered that two separate layoffs occurred under what appears as one event in the MLS database.

Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)
Note: This classification structure has been replaced with a new classification structure entitled NAICS or North American Industrial Classification System, containing comparable industry codes for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Standard Industrial Classification. For purposes of statistical data collection, all businesses are assigned an SIC Code. This code describes the primary goods and services offered by the business. The entire body of industries is divided into two sectors:

1. service-producing industries which include:
• transportation, communications, and public utilities
• wholesale trade, retail trade, finance, insurance, and real estate
• services
• government
2. goods-producing industries which include industries in:
• agriculture, forestry, and fishing
• mining
• construction
• manufacturing

These divisions are further divided into industries with a single product or service. Detailed descriptions of all industry classifications can be found in the Standard Industrial Classification Manual (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 1987).

Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)
A standard classification used in social and economic statistical reporting programs, such as the Census Bureau or Bureau of Labor Statistics programs. There are far fewer occupations defined by the SOC than in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.

State Trigger
An optional value set by the state to determine the minimum number of initial claims that will trigger a potential State-defined mass layoff event. The trigger may be any number less than the BLS Trigger, but greater than zero. Indiana has a state trigger of 20.

State Unemployment Insurance Compensation
State unemployment insurance compensation consists mainly of payments received by individuals under state-administered unemployment insurance (UI) programs, but includes the special benefits authorized by federal legislation for periods of high unemployment.

State-Wide Establishment
A business with a number of decentralized individual worksites within a state engaged in a single economic activity, and all operating under the same unemployment insurance (UI) account number.

Stop Date
In the MLS Program, this is the last date that initial claims may be collected for a particular layoff event. It must be equal to or greater than the event's Date of 1st Separation and less than the Date of 1st Separation of the next chronological event for the same unemployment insurance (UI) account number.

Stop Date = Event Trigger Week + Event Number of Collection Weeks

Strike
A work stoppage by employees acting together in an attempt to bring pressure on management to give in to their demands concerning wages, working conditions, union recognition, or some other issue.

Structural Unemployment
This type of unemployment occurs when the basic nature of the economy changes over time such that employers no longer demand skills which unemployed workers possess. Structural unemployment is involuntary unemployment and typically requires retraining or education of displaced workers to bring their skills into line with demand.

Summary File (SF)
Statistics for a large number of geographic areas that are designed to show great subject matter detail presented in tabular form. There are four main summary files produced from the data collected during Census 2000.

Summary File 1 (SF 1)
This file presents 100-percent population and housing figures for the total population, for 63 race categories, and for many other race and Hispanic or Latino categories.

Summary File 3 (SF 3)
This file presents data on the population and housing long form subjects such as income and education. It includes population totals for ancestry groups. It also includes selected characteristics for a limited number of race and Hispanic or Latino categories.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Benefits
These benefits consist of the payments received by low-income persons who are aged, blind, or disabled from both the federal and state governments.

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
The State of Indiana has programs in place to assist families and persons living in poverty. TANF provides cash assistance to children under age 18 who are deprived of financial support of a parent. Eligibility requirements are specified by the State Family and Social Services Agency.

Tenth (10th) Percentile
The 10th percentile is the point in a given distribution at which 10% of the observations fall below that point and 90% of the observations fall above it.

Third (3rd) Quartile
The 3rd quartile is the point in a given distribution at which 75% of the observations fall below that point and 25% of the observations fall above it.

Temporary Layoff
A layoff with an expected duration of 30 days or less.

Total Openings (For Long Term/Short Term Projections)
The sum of the number of job openings due to growth (new jobs) and the number of job openings due to replacements.

Transitional Claim
An administrative claim filed to establish a new benefit year within a 7-day period immediately following the ending date of the previous benefit year. A re-determination of claimant eligibility for unemployment insurance (UI) compensation is also initiated with this claim. A transitional claim reflects a claimant that was already filing continued claims but had not exhausted their weekly benefit eligibility when the old benefit year expired. Since it does not reflect a new spell of unemployment for the claimant, transitional initial claims are excluded from MLS initial claims for determining potential layoff events.

Trigger Week
The week in which the number of initial claims for a potential MLS event equals or exceeds the BLS or state trigger value, or in which a potential DW Event is identified.

Turnover
Separation of an employee from an establishment (voluntary, involuntary, or other).

Turnover Rate
The number of total separations during the month divided by the number of employees who worked during or received pay for the pay period that includes the 12th day of the month (monthly turnover); the number of total separations for the year divided by average monthly employment for the year (annual turnover).

UCFE
See Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees.

UCX
See Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Service Members.

UI
Unemployment Insurance (formerly UC: Unemployment Compensation)

UI Number
See Unemployment Insurance Account Number.

Underemployment
Persons working full- or part-time in jobs that are below their earning capacity or level of competence. The terms underemployed and underutilized are used interchangeably. Underemployed has also been defined as "involuntary part-time employment" or employment of a person on a part-time basis when full-time work is desired.

Unemployed
The number of people who, during the reference week (includes the 12th day of the month),

1. had no employment but were available for work and
2. had engaged in any specific job-seeking activity within the past four weeks, such as registering at a public or private employment office, meeting with prospective employers, checking with friends or relatives, placing or answering advertisements, writing letters of application, or being on a union or professional register; or
3. were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off within the past 6 months; or
4. were waiting to report to a new wage or salary job within 30 days.

All persons who had no employment during the reference week were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment some time during the four week-period ending with the reference week are classified as unemployed. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed.

Unemployed persons
Persons aged 16 years and older who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the four-week period ending with the reference week. Persons who were waiting to be recalled to a job from which they had been laid off need not have been looking for work to be classified as unemployed.

Unemployment
Occurs when any of the factors of production (labor, land, capital, and entrepreneurship) are not employed in production of goods and services. Unemployment occurs when labor, a factor of production, is not being fully utilized due to the unavailability of suitable jobs. It is strictly defined as a situation where people who are willing and able to work cannot find employment. There are three types of unemployment:

1. Frictional
2. Seasonal
3. Structural

Unemployment Compensation for Ex-Service Members
An unemployment system covering ex-military Service Members. It was initiated in the Social Security Act of 1935 to provide benefits to workers out of work due to no fault of their own. They are excluded from the MLS Program.

Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees
An unemployment insurance system covering Federal Employees. It was initiated in the Social Security Act of 1935 to provide benefits to workers out of work due to no fault of their own.

Unemployment Compensation for Railroad Employees
Unemployment compensation of railroad employees are benefits received by railroad workers who are unemployed because of sickness or because work is unavailable in the railroad industry and in related industries, such as carrier affiliates. This unemployment insurance (UI) program is administered by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) under a Federal program that is applicable throughout the nation.

Unemployment Compensation for Veterans
These benefits are received by unemployed veterans who have recently separated from military service and who are not eligible for military retirement benefits. The compensation is paid under a Federal program that is administered by state employment security agencies.

Unemployment Insurance Account Number
A unique 10-digit code assigned by the State Employment Security Agency (SESA) to allow for the identification of an establishment in the state unemployment insurance (UI) tax system.

Unemployment Insurance Compensation (Bureau of Economic Analysis)
Unemployment insurance compensation are made up of the following:

State unemployment compensation: benefits consisting mainly of the payments received by individuals under state-administered unemployment insurance (UI) programs, but they include the special benefits authorized by federal legislation for periods of high unemployment. The provisions that govern the eligibility, timing, and amount of benefit payments vary among the states, but the provisions that govern the coverage and financing are uniform nationally.

Unemployment compensation of federal civilian employees: benefits received by former federal employees under a federal program administered by the state employment security agencies.

Unemployment compensation of railroad employees: benefits received by railroad workers who are unemployed because of sickness or because work is unavailable in the railroad industry and in related industries, such as carrier affiliates. This UI program is administered by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) under a federal program that is applicable throughout the Nation.

Unemployment compensation of veterans: benefits which are received by unemployed veterans who have recently separated from military service and who are not eligible for military retirement benefits. The compensation is paid under a federal program that is administered by the state employment security agencies.

Trade adjustment allowances: payments received by workers who are unemployed because of the adverse economic effects of international trade arrangements.

Unemployment Insurance System
A Federal-State system initiated in the Social Security Act of 1935 to provide benefits to workers out of work due to no fault of their own. The system is financed by a payroll tax on employers. Most states pay a maximum benefit of 26 weeks in their regular State program. However, those programs may be supplemented with extended benefit programs during times of high unemployment.

Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate represents the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate eliminates the influence of regularly recurring seasonal fluctuations that can be ascribed to weather, crop-growing cycles, holidays, vacations, regular industry model changeover periods, and the like, and therefore more clearly shows the underlying basic trend of unemployment. The ratio of unemployed to the civilian labor force is expressed as a percent.

Universe
The total number of units (for example, individuals, households, or businesses) in the population of interest.

Units in Structure
A structure is a separate building that either has open spaces on all sides or is separated from other structures by dividing walls that extend from ground to roof. Census of Housing data exclude stores and office space.

Unpaid Family Workers
Persons who worked without pay for 15 hours a week or more in a business operated by a family member.

Urban Area
A statistical geographic entity defined by the Census Bureau, consisting of a central place(s) and adjacent densely settled territory that together contain at least 50,000 people, generally with an overall population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile.

Urban Cluster
A statistical geographic entity to be defined by the Census Bureau for Census 2000, consisting of a central place(s) and adjacent densely settled territory that together contain at least 2,500 people, generally with an overall population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile. For purposes of defining core based statistical areas, only those urban clusters of 10,000 or more population are considered.

Valid Initial Claim
In the MLS Program, an initial claim, which has a positive monetary determination, i.e., sufficient employment and wage credits earned to establish entitlement to compensation under a specific unemployment insurance (UI) program.

Veterans Benefits
This is the total of the following veterans benefits: veterans pension and disability benefits, veterans readjustment benefits, veterans life insurance benefits, and other assistance to veterans (federal government payments received by paraplegics and by certain other disabled veterans to purchase automobiles and other conveyances, state and local government payments of assistance to indigent veterans, and the state and local government payments of bonuses to veterans).

Veterans Life Insurance Benefits
These benefits consist of the payments received by the beneficiaries of veterans life insurance policies and the dividends received by the policyholders from the five veterans life insurance programs administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA).

Veterans Pension and Disability Benefits
These benefits consist mainly of the payments that are received by veterans with service-connected disabilities and by the survivors of military personnel who died of service-connected causes. In addition, these benefits include the payments that are received by war veterans who are 65 years old or older, who have nonservice-connected disabilities, who are permanently and totally disabled, and who meet specified income requirements.

Veterans Readjustment Benefits
These benefits are the payments of the allowances for tuition and other educational costs that are received by veterans and by the spouses and the children of disabled and deceased veterans; and for automobiles, conveyances, and specially adapted housing for disabled veterans.

Wage and Salary Workers
Workers who receive wages, salaries, commissions, tips, payment in kind, or piece rates. The group includes employees in both the private and public sectors.

Wages and Salaries
Hourly straight-time wage rate or, for workers not paid on an hourly basis, straight-time earnings divided by the corresponding hours. Straight-time wage and salary rates are total earnings before payroll deductions, excluding premium pay for overtime and for work on weekends and holidays, shift differentials, and nonproduction bonuses such as lump-sum payments provided in lieu of wage increases.

Waiting Period
The period of time a worker must wait after becoming unemployed to become eligible for benefits. Most states require a waiting period of one week of total unemployment before unemployment benefits are payable.

WARN Notice
See Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

Weekly Hours
The expected or actual period of employment for the week, usually expressed in number of hours. Some uses of the term may relate to the outside dimensions of a week (for example, 7 consecutive days).

WIA
See Workforce Investment Act

WIA Planning Region
The state of Indiana has been divided into 12 regions for which workforce statistics are created and maintained for Workforce Investment Act planning.

Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act
This act became effective on February 4, 1989. It offers protection to workers covered by unemployment insurance, their families, and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of plant closing and mass layoff. In general, private employers are covered by WARN if they have 100 or more employees, not counting employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 month, and not counting employees who work and average of less than 20 hours a week.

Workers' Compensation
Workers' compensation consists of the payments that are received by individuals with employment-related injuries and illnesses and by the survivors of individuals who died of employment-related causes.

Workforce Information Council
A group of senior staff of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Employment and Training Administration and 10 state representatives who are charged with the development, maintenance, and improvement of the nationwide system of Labor Market Information.

Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
Signed on August 7, 1998, this legislation rewrote the Federal statutes governing job-training programs, adult education and literacy, and vocational rehabilitation. The Act is intended to provide a more coordinated, customer-friendly, locally driven workforce development system. In many respects it "codifies" the one-stop career center system approach that has been underway in states for several years and supported, in part, by grants from the Department of Labor.

Workforce Statistics
The body of information that deals with the functioning of labor markets and the determination of the demand for and supply of labor. It includes, but is not limited to, such key factors as changes in the level and/or composition of economic activity, the population, employment and unemployment, income and earnings, and wage rates and fringe benefits.

No entries for these letters.