Finding the Jewels Among the Stones Spelunking for the “Five-Minute-a-Year” DLI Contact E. Hamilton, Accoleds/DLI December 2006

“So many acronyms!!—How do I get to know what is in the collection? I haven’t even had time for lunch in the past four years and I don’t get enough questions to plumb the depths!” This session presents an approach to the needs of the “5 minutes per year” data person who is wearing many hats and needs to find that match between the data and the user in the DLI collection. The Challenge

Product Highlights It is an additional mode of learning and is audience driven (the DLI contacts get to vote for their favourite new acronym) It is visual and broad—and is not a substitute for IMDB, subject experts, or any other official information sources. Started with conscripted volunteers who took a product and gave 10-minute overview of items in the DLI collection. There have now been 10 minute spots on: DGAIS, ED, SPED, SPSD/M, Aeeeh, SARTRE, CBP, FPICB, PEA, ESAS, ICO, XCL, KLEMS, a few more acronyms and some revisiting…

Product Highlights We have now broadened the scope to include families of products where we do a bit of “compare and contrast”. Included in the family relationship series have been: Labour force (LFS, SEPH, Census, etc.), Health, Justice, Classification systems, definitions & terminology used in the STC world Common to each product highlight are five basic questions:

Product Highlights: Key Elements What is it? When would I use it? What does it look like? What do I need to know? Where can I get more information?

Product Highlights: Key Elements Must be short but pithy Focus on value to the collection in meeting needs of patrons Handouts are good; helps with the focus Sharing experiences is a bonus!

One example is worth a thousand words, right?

AN INTRODUCTION TO … “ED”

What is it? ED=Employment Dynamics - Excel spreadsheets - Selected statistics on businesses and the number of jobs involved at a national and provincial level - Includes the number of employers/businesses organized by province, industry, employment size and life status (continuing, new, defunct); indicating aggregate payroll and their employment levels. - Statistics for 1983/ /98 (updates in sight, Monia?)

- Stats are pulled from a longitudinal database [LEAP] of all businesses that issue T4 slips, so StatsCan can relate the following: In 1997, there were about 955,800 active employers of all sizes. About 718,000, or 75%, had fewer than five employees; 213,000 or about 22%, had between 5 and 50…. In 1996, about 145,500 employer businesses with fewer than 50 employees began operations, up 2.6% from At the same time, 125,900 firms of the same size went out of business, 11.7% fewer firms than went out of business in The Daily, 8 March 2000 With ED, your users can do the same sort of analysis for different industries or province When would I use it?

What does it look like? When you unzip the file (english.zip), a directory called “ED” is created and you will see the following structure unfold before your eyes: ED Data Tables Alberta AB (Divisions).xls 2,175 KB AB (Major Groups).xls10,850 KB AB (Total All Industries).xls 117KB British Columbia Canada [etc.] Documentation GeneralProductInformation.DOC IndustryCodes.XLS LicenceAgreement.DOC TableNotes.DOC

“Newly-identified employers added 516,000 jobs; a loss of 399,000 jobs was attributed to firms that terminated, and firms that were present in both 1997 and 1998 contributed a net addition of 556,000 jobs.” The Daily 13 June 2001

What do I need to know? What is the difference between the files available? It is the level of detail in the industry code. In the three files for Nova Scotia, for example: NS (total all industries).xls 11 columns and 643 rows (the single code, Z00, is for “all industries”) NS (divisions).xls 11 columns, but 12,614 rows (representing industry divisions) NS (Major groups).xls 11 columns, but 49,154 rows Print out the General Product Information and Table Notes. These two documents are concise, providing an introduction to ED, Industry Codes, and including key definitions (like what an ALU is).

Documentation is not bad, but ask on the DLI-List if you have questions. Related products include SPED (Sub-provincial Employment Dynamics), Canadian Business Patterns, Small Business Profiles, and Insights on… (61F0019XIE, available freely for downloading on the Statistics Canada web site. Where Can I Find More Information?

Family Relationships Looking at products by subject area

In the Dysfunctional Family…  Census Geography (including PCCF family)  Census Tables (DA and FSA level geog.)  Historical Census pumfs/profiles  KLEM: capital, labour, energy & material database UCatch and Effort Data: Atlantic Fisheries Files only on the FTP server for really good reasons.

The Labour Family They’re not the mafia, but they’re tough! A Tale of Sibling Rivalry

Who/What Are They? They breed. They are everywhere They are powerful They get respect* * Even from the Auditor General SFS LFS SEPH SLID ELI LAD CENSUS AEEEH EIS SHS Labour force statistics provide an important economic indicator in Canada. We need to understand their roots to help users come to terms with using the statistics and related data files. And more…

The Health Family Tree And Mixed Marriages Who produces what?

The Working Family Read the survey documentation! User Guides and Reference Sources

What are they? More than this:

What do they look like? Global View of Surveys System of National Economic Accounts Guide to Statistics Canada pension and wealth surveys Publicly available data resources in the nonprofit sector in Canada Guide to Transportation Data Business Portal

When Would You Use Them? Got a question? I need to know how the LICO are calculated. “20 percentage points more” of what? Is it gross income, disposable income, or total consumption? I'm looking for something called "the real effective exchange rate". Is output gap the same as potential GDP? What surveys do you have that deal with labour topics? Help! This doesn’t make sense!

What Do I Need to Know? Finding them is the big challenge Try the codebook; read the footnotes We love Definitions, Data Sources and Methods: –Check individual surveys for sightings of “Additional Documentation” and “Summary of Changes over Time” Search Online Catalogue and STC search: – “user guide, manual, handbook, sources, method*, concepts” plus the subject or survey you need

Definitions, Data Sources and Methods Changes over time Publications

Be Imaginative!

Thank you!

Want to See More Examples?

SPSD/M Social Policy Simulation Database and Model Allows “What if” questions relating to financial flows between households and governments Learning curve steep; DOS an asset Documentation critical to read!

SPSD/M Components

SPSD/M Look and Feel Start-up screen Parameter setting Output screen

DGAIS: Dangerous Goods Accident Information System

* Annual estimates of employment, average weekly earnings, and total weekly payrolls. What is it?

Annual estimates of employment, earnings and hours (aeeeh) Spawn of SEPH (Survey of employment, payroll and hours) Presented as aggregate statistics Business, rather than social survey Available straight up, or packaged (no quarterly stats)

Annual estimates of employment, earnings and hours (aeeeh) Employment numbers Average weekly earnings Total payroll  By type of employee (hrly,all)  For industries (NAICS)  Annual and monthly data  By size of enterprise

Tutorials: Beyond 20/20 Acrobat Tables : Employment, Earnings and Hours Table no. Table Title FrequencyFile name Table 1 All employees: estimates of employment by NAICS 2002 code (326) Annual Tab_1aa.ivt Monthly Tab_1mh.ivt Table 2 All employees: estimates of average weekly earnings by NAICS 2002 code (326) AnnualTab_2aa.ivt MonthlyTab_2mh.ivt Table 3 All employees: estimates of total weekly payrolls by NAICS 2002 code (22), AnnualTab_3aa.ivt MonthlyTab_3mh.ivt Table 4 Employees:paid by the hour, estimates of employment by NAICS 2002 code (288) AnnualTab_4aa.ivt MonthlyTab_4mh.ivt Table 5 Employees:paid by the hour, estimates of average hourly earnings by NAICS 2002 code (288) MonthlyTab_5aa.ivt MonthlyTab_5ah.ivt Table 6 Employees:paid by the hour, estimates of average weekly hours AnnualTab_611.ivt MonthlyTab_6mh.ivt Table 7 Employees:paid by the hour, estimates of total weekly payrolls AnnualTab_7aa.ivt MonthlyTab_7mh.ivt Data by size of enterprise estimates of employment, average weekly earnings for all employees; average weekly earnings for hourly employees AnnualTab_sca.ivt QuarterlyTab_sca.ivt

When would I use it?

You would use aeeeh if you need monthly data or when you cannot retrieve statistics from CANSIM. First time users would be wise to consult the e-pub first for definitions When should you (a) chose aeeeh as a product over the e- publication, Employment, Earnings and Hours (72-002IXB)? (b) Turn to aeeeh instead of the SEPH Cansim tables?

What Does It Look Like?

Tutorials: Beyond 20/20 Acrobat 2003 annual highlights Guide to Aeeeh Tables : Employment, Earnings and Hours

Data by size of enterprise: annual (Tab_sca.ivt)

What do I need to know?

Table AWE unadjusted for seasonal variation, by type of employee for selected industries classified by NAICS, annual Canada All employees Regular & OT hours Logging All dates CANSIM Offerings

The data are available in aeeeh—but it is unclear whether these figures include overtime or not (they do, btw) Aeeeh: Canada All employees Logging All dates

What else do I need to know? Mother survey is SEPH Formerly, annual data in print/e-pub (Annual estimates of Employment, Earnings and Hours ); now discontinued. Annual data only though the DLI or for fee. The publication, Annual Estimates, included growth rates for selected industries that are not included in aeeeh. Employment, Earnings and Hours is still produced as a monthly electronic publication through the DSP. Why would you even consider the e-print version? Documentation!! It is easy to find out, for example, that librarians and university presidents are grouped in with employees paid by the hour, along with janitorial staff--unless classified as academics in the payroll records.