What's New - November 2002

Site of the Month: Small Business Administration

For November, our site of the month is the Small Business Administration's 2002 State Small Business Profiles.  SBA's Office of Advocacy makes a wide range of small business data available, and annually summarizes key state level statistics in a convenient report format.  Small business are particularly important in  several sectors of the economy, including construction  professional, scientific and technical services and health care and social assistance.
The profiles also provide data on the role of  women and minority-owned small businesses in the US economy.  The latest figures show that women own 26% of the nation's firms and minorities own 15%.  

Individual state profiles include baseline statistics on each state's small business economy - number of firms, small business income, industrial composition, job growth and data on minority and women-owned businesses. The complete report, which presents a small business profile of each state, is available from the Office of Advocacy web site at

http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/profiles/.

New Links Added

This month's new links focus on patent activity.  Patents are one of the few statistical indicators of knowledge creating activity available at the state and sub-state levels.   Here you can find current and historical rankings of patents issued by state, and data for the last decade on sub-state areas, individual academic institutions, and  independent inventors.

State Science & Technology Institute
Patent Activity
Patent activity and rankings, by state, 2000
http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/053102t.htm

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Historical Patent Counts
Historical patents counts by state (1963-1983)
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm

Patents by Geography
Patents awarded by state (1977-latest year) and metropolitan area and county (1990-latest year), with breakouts by organization.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm

Patents to Academic Institutions
Patents awarded annually to each U.S. college and university, 1969-latest year.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/univ/univ_toc.htm

Independent Inventors
Patents awarded to independent inventors, by state, 1977-latest year.
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/reports.htm

New and Improved

If you're like we are, you've got some data sources that you turn to on a regular basis, because they offer current, vital, and reliable information.  One of our favorites at EconData.Net is the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  A year ago (November 2001) we named it site of the month, in recognition of a greatly improved user interface.  But the folks at BLS didn't stop working--apparently they take continuous improvement seriously.  The site's data download feature--"Get Detailed Statistics"--now offers even more options and ease of use for extracting the data you want (in a way you can readily import into a spreadsheet).  It also offers web-based charting functions--a real model of how to make data not only accessible but immediately useful.  If you're a regular BLS user, you've probably noticed the changes, if not, pay a visit.  You can find the most frequently used state and substate data at:

-Current Employment Statistics http://www.bls.gov/sae/home.htm
-Local Area Unemployment Statistics http://www.bls.gov/lau/home.htm
-Covered Employment http://www.bls.gov/cew/home.htm
-Mass Layoffs http://www.bls.gov/mls/home.htm

BLS:  SIC RIP March '03!

While we're on the subject of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, be aware that BLS converting one of its major data series, Current Employment Statistics, to the new North American Industry Classification System, effective in March 2003.  Beginning with January 2003 data (released in March), the Current Employment Statistics Series will no longer be reported in the familiar though timeworn SIC format.  As we've told you before, this will be the mother of all series breaks, but BLS will be helping to cushion the blow by reporting historical data (from 1990 onward), in the new NAICS categories.  Read all about it at  http://www.bls.gov/sae/saenaics.htm.  

If you haven't started doing so already, its time to start learning the new NAICS nomenclature.  (Covered Employment and Wages, the other major BLS employment series for states and counties converted to NAICS with the publication of the 2001 calendar year data earlier this year).