A look forward to the U.S. Census supported celebration
There's a good chance that at least once a year you hear that it's "National Best Friend's Day" or "National Name Your Car Day" or something hyper specific and seemingly uncelebratory. A quick glance at Days of the Year shows just how out there some ideas are - but hey! We're not here to judge. Instead, we're going to highlight a census related celebration that is fast approaching this month.
For just over ten years the U.S. Census Bureau has been supporting a holiday created by the Manufacturing Institute: Manufacturing Day. Initiated in 2011, it's a celebration/promotion/series of events dedicated to the various industries in the United States and how to make these different corners more accessible to people in search of a career path. The holiday itself is always the first Friday in October, but really it's a kickoff to a week full of events where career advice is offered to young students and where the contributions of those in various industries are highlighted.
Now, we are Censtats, after all, so our interest mainly lies in the data side of the things and how the Census handles its data in relation to Manufacturing Day/Week. You can begin reading up on their goals here where they share a large amount of resources to satiate your interest (whatever it may be) when it comes to census data about trade and manufacturing. All of this data comes from a variety of sources, like the American Community Survey (fans of Censtats should be used to this by now) and the Economic Census which is conducted every five years and covers business statistics at all levels of society. For the purpose of this blog post, we're going to highlight points of interest to get you started.
For one, you have the Economic Indicators page where the Census Bureau lays out a plethora of details regarding business statistics and inventories. You can see the increases and decreases month by month, read up on the press releases and Excel files, and receive updates via email or RSS.
Beyond that, you also have the Experimental Data Products (which we've touched on in previous blog posts) which highlight surveys/measures of business, manufacturing, and housing related subjects.
Lastly, you have a cool program called the Census Business Builder which is dedicated to helping small businesses research in specific fields. Like with most things we end up showcasing, the CBB shares data featured in the American Community Survey, and once in action looks a bit like this:
Even if you're not a business owner, it is still a cool tool to mess around with, and a great way of engaging with the general themes behind Manufacturing Day/Week. With census data, especially as we at Censtats like to highlight the American Community Survey, it's also helpful to remember that a lot of data is collected and shared that isn't just simple housing demographics, and the Census Bureau continues to provide incredible ways of interacting and exploring this data (much like we touched on last week with the weather radars). As such, we will continue to help highlight these great tools so that they don't go untouched and can lend themselves to a helpful and productive Manufacturing Day.
Header image sourced with permission from yoosillyone.
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