The U.S. Census Bureau and the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership in collaboration with the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) and the Labor Market Information (LMI) Institute, welcomes Ross Evans as he presents, “Better Metrics Using Wage Records Microdata.” In this advanced presentation, the average wages reported by the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages often make it seem like people are earning more than they really are, especially those in regular, everyday jobs. A better way to understand what most people actually earn is by using more detailed wage data. When utilizing log-transformed methods, this microdata shows clear patterns of what a typical worker earns. 

Ross Evans is a systems analyst in the Labor Market Information (LMI) Department of the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), where he has worked since 2001 building databases to support LMI economists. He manages an internal research database of over 1.5 billion Texas wage records dating to 1990 and has contributed Texas data to the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program for more than 20 years. He also has participated in the BLS Wage Record Pilot since its inception. A recovering journalist, Mr. Evans began his career at the Washington Star as a copyboy and became deputy national editor before the newspaper’s demise in 1981. He moved to Congressional Quarterly (CQ) as a journalist, and later managed development of CQ’s online service that pioneered text-search technologies long before the Internet. He joined TWC after several years at Dell Computer in Austin. 

Time: 1:30 - 2:45 p.m. ET