I was hoping someone could walk me through this, because thus far I’ve been unsuccessful. I just need to see the size of the labor force in each state in the US from 1840 to the present. How do I go about obtaining this information and displaying it in Microsoft Excel? Thanks.
It sounds like you’ll want to be using ACS data found on the IPUMS-USA site. You’ll want to grab the LABFORCE variable as well as a state ID variable (STATEFIP is typical). The YEAR variable is “preselected”, so you don’t have to actively include it in your data extract it is automatically added for you. From here, you can submit the data extract and download into excel. Several online tutorials are available as well as a FAQ page to assist in the process of downloading and opening your data extract. Additionally, the NHGIS database has summary data you may find useful, rather than the microdata that is available on IPUMS-USA.
Thank you, Jeff! I will give this another shot.
Jeff,
I’ve been attempting to upload a screenshot of the gibberish Excel is returning, with little luck. Basically, when you open the CSV file with Excel, it looks like:
Column 1=same year over and over…Column 2=State FIP (same number over and over)…Column 3=a seemingly random integer.
I’m none too tech savvy so I want it to look like:
Column 1 = STATE, Column 2 = YEAR, Column 3 = SIZE OF THE LABOR FORCE IN THAT STATE AND YEAR
I mean, they can be in any order, but that is the information I need. Thanks!
Nevermind, I got it by going to the main site and using the SDA. Took less time, too!