Re: [CTPP] Place-of-Work Coding

Granato, Sam wrote: of not Sam, in the next issue of our newsletter called "ctpp 2000 status report", Phil Salopek addesses this issue. A draft of the newsletter was distributed at TRB two weeks ago and will be posted on our web page very shortly. It is awaiting some signatures to approve the distribution. below is a copy of Phil's article from the draft. The real short answer to your question is Yes, the process will be different. Here is the long answer. Phil and Bob may wish to add something. ed christopher ----------------------- Local Review of Employer Files (LREF) by Phil Salopek Census Bureau For the 1980 and 1990 censuses, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) were asked to provide the names and addresses of major employers in their area to Census for use in place of work coding. These lists were useful additions to the reference materials Census employed in the coding, but there are some aspects of the process we think we can improve for the 2000 census. In the first place, the creation of the lists was very labor intensive and time consuming for many MPOs, and often required extensive administrative dealings with other agencies. The collection and processing of the lists was very labor intensive and time consuming for the Census Bureau too, as the files were received on various media and in many different formats. The Bureau had to obtain and process a number of other large reference files as well. The result was a complex, difficult to manage process. For 2000, one of our first goals was to cut down on the total number of inputs to the process. We also felt it would be less difficult for the majority of MPOs to review a list that already existed, rather than create a list themselves as in the past. Toward this end, the Bureau has licensed a commercial business database for use in the 2000 census that covers the entire nation. The file is based on yellow pages, commercial white pages, and government blue pages phone directories. Unlike the Bureau’s internal establishment list, which is census-confidential and not available to the public, the vendor who owns the leased file has agreed to an MPO review prior to Census using the file for place-of-work coding. Another important issue for Census was the need to standardize the files coming in from the MPOs. We faced a similar issue in the 1990 census in regard to traffic analysis zone (TAZ) equivalency files. The problem was effectively addressed by Census distributing a personal-computer-based application program to the MPOs for the equivalency work that also created a standard output file for transmittal back to Census. It seemed reasonable to consider a comparable process for the 2000 employer files. Our plan is to develop a GIS-based program, similar to the TAZ update program, for MPOs to review, correct, update, and extend the employer names and addresses in the commercial business database Census has leased. Our intent is to create an application that will display on a TIGER/Line98 base the locations of employers successfully geocoded by Census. The application will allow the user to choose various ways to organize the review process: by number of employees, industry type, street name, ZIP code, etc. MPOs will be able to correct the information for businesses coded to the wrong location. They will also be able to add employers missing from the original file and delete firms no longer in business. Records for companies that Census was not able to geocode will be provided as well, and MPOs will have the capability to indicate their locations. The application will create a standard output file for transmittal back to Census. As noted above, we envision the Local Review of Employer Files (LREF) occurring after the TAZ update program. However, if some MPOs see an advantage to overlapping the two processes, that may be possible. We think six months should be sufficient for an MPO to complete the review, and hope to be able to begin distribution of the application during May or June of 1999. Place-of-work coding is currently scheduled to begin in June of 2000 and some processing of the files will be required prior to this, so all employer files need to be returned to Census by January 2000 at the latest. The details of the LREF program will be worked out in the next month or so.