Econ 315 Labor Economics Project 1

February 2, 2021

Econ 315 Labor Economics Project 1 : Unemployment

Your paper and dashboard are due to Canvas before 11:59 PM ET on Wednesday, February 4th.The analysis paper should be typed, 12 pt. font, double-spaced, and combined into
one single PDF file
, including copies of all supporting material identified below. Do not exceed the space limit of three written pages of analysis–the grading will stop there.
This is to be independent work. If assignments closely resemble the work of other students (past, present, or future), you will be submitted to the College of the Liberal Arts for academic misconduct (even after you finish the course). TurnItIn will be used AFTER you submit your assignment to check for authenticity.
Be sure you are citing any material you find online, including the references provided in the project or readings assigned for class.
Last summer, nearly every state experienced its highest monthly unemployment rate since the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started tracking the series in 1976. Before starting this project, read this
Washington Post article (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/22/stateunemployment-
rate-April)
on how the pandemic has impacted US labor markets. This will be a good way to frame what you’ll be looking at in this project Be sure to summarize the article as part of the introduction to your paper. The dashboard you arrange for this project will look at unemployment for your state and the United States using data from the BLS.
Data Sources for Econ 315 Labor Economics Project 1
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021). “State Level Unemployment” via Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/categories/27281)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021). “US Unemployment Rate” via Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE)
National Bureau of Economic Research (2020). “US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions” (https://www.nber.org/research/data/us-business-cycle-expansions-andcontractions)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021). “Labor force data by county, not seasonally adjusted, April 2020” Local Area Unemployment Statistics.
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lHYUm1yzAYx5ng_wIec2hwYV04SLIoH1/view?usp=sharing)
Here’s What to Do
Data Sheet to use in the Econ 315 Labor Economics Project 1
Create a folder on your computer that will store all of the files associated with this project and download the data sources listed above into that folder. Be sure that you are saving your work in
2021/2/2 Project #1: Unemployment: ECON 315, Section 001: Labor Economics (22111–UP—CRECON—-315——-001-)
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/pages/project-number-1-unemployment?module_item_id=31291981 2/7
Tableau frequently. Access the FRED State Level Unemployment link above, select your state, and download the Seasonally Adjusted Monthly Unemployment Rate for your state as an Excel file. Open the Excel file and delete the first 10 rows. Your first row (Row A) should only include the titles of your data followed by all of the data in the subsequent rows. Save your Excel file in the folder you created for this project.
Repeat the process above, but download the data associated with the US’s seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate. Remove the first 10 rows describing the data file as you did before. The first row (Row A) should only have the data titles.
Tableau Work
We’ll create two different visualizations measuring unemployment for your state. Your dashboard will include visualizations of
historical unemployment
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gUWXXCoqjSjmtsnbZ3RlsRMh7sMePf0t/view?usp=sharing)
and a
map showing county-level variation
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jfbFm0_yNA4XVcBXTaZgB5_toE4UUGa_/view?usp=sharing)
for April2020. Open Tableau Desktop and create a new workbook by connecting to a Microsoft Excel file. Save your new workbook in the project you saved your data in and be sure to save your workbook after each visualization. First, connect to your formatted state-level unemployment data. In the Connections section on the left menu, add a connection to an Excel file with your US level unemployment data. Be sure your UNRATE file is highlighted in the left menu and drag the ‘FRED Graph’ sheet to the data window. A noodle will appear to connect the two sheets together. Tableau will likely recognize your connection, but if not then you should connect them by observation date.
Visualization #1: Historical Unemployment
Your first worksheet will look at monthly unemployment rates in your state and how it compares to the US rate. We will start by recreating the graphs you saw in FRED before downloading the data, but the benefit of using Tableau is that we can display them on a dashboard with other visualizations. Select Sheet 1 from the lower menu to start a new worksheet. Right-click on the
Unrate
measure to create a new calculated field and name it
United States
. In the calculation field, divide the Unrate by 100. Right click on your state’s unemployment measure and repeat the process for your state. Name that calculated field after your state and divide your state’s unemployment rate by 100.
Drag the
Observation Date
dimension from your variable pane and place it on the Columns shelf. Drag the
United States
measure to the Rows shelf. Right-click on the Observation Date pill in your Columns shelf and select the second entry for Month that let’s Tableau know your data has month and year information in the cell. Drag the
State
measure that you created and place it on the vertical axis of the chart in the visualization window. This will place both lines on the same chat and use a blended axis.
Next, we will add some light reference bands to the graph to indicate each recession determined by the NBER. A link for the dates is included in the Data section above. To add a reference band to your visualization:
2021/2/2 Project #1: Unemployment: ECON 315, Section 001: Labor Economics (22111–UP—CRECON—-315——-001-)
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/pages/project-number-1-unemployment?module_item_id=31291981 3/7
Change the left column from Data to Analytics.
Drag the Reference band from the menu to your chart and drop the item in the Observation Date section of the table. This will open a box to let you determine where the band should be placed. It’s easier to start this process from the most recent recession and work backward.
Change the “Band From” section from minimum to a constant. Set the value at the beginning of one of the recessions. Do not include a label and do not include a tooltip.
Change the “Band To” section from minimum to a constant. Set the value at the end of the same recession. Do not include a label and do not include a tooltip.

Econ 315 Labor Economics Project 1
Format as you wish, but be sure you’re consistent across all of your recession bands.
Repeat for each recession that has occurred since 1976.
You have officially created your first visualization, but we need to format the visualization to improve its presentation:
Rename your worksheet in the bottom toolbar
Edit the axis labels to be more informative and give your chart a suitable title
Edit your horizontal axis so that your timeline starts/ends at the same year as the data
Format your vertical axis to represent a percentage
Format both axes so that the font is larger
Format your horizontal axis so that your zero line is thicker than the default
Make your graph lines thicker by adjusting the size mark card
Label your lines by dragging
Measure Names
from the dimensions to the Label mark. Select the Label mark card and “Allow labels to overlap other marks.” Adjust the label options to improve the presentation
Remove the label card from the right menu since your lines are labeled on the visualization.
Update the tooltip marks card to be more informative. You may need to drag different measures/dimensions to the tooltip marks card
Change the color of your lines to be something other than the default. Need inspiration for colors? Check out this
Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/p/ByaIJqvAqCs/)
.
From the Worksheet menu in the main menu, show the caption for this visualization, and indicate that the shading represents recessions
Visualization #2: County-Level Map
I have provided the employment and unemployment totals for each county across the United States in the data section above, but the data is provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since April 2020 was the highest unemployment rate in recent US history, we’ll map the county unemployment rate across your state in that month.
Create a new sheet in Tableau for your second visualization. Under Data in the main menu, select
New Data Source
and connect your 2020 April County Unemployment Excel file that is linked above in the data sources section. We’re not going to connect this dataset to the others, so this data is actually separate from the first ones we added. In your new worksheet, we have county names listed with the state (Centre County, PA), but we need to split these into two separate dimensions. Right-click on
County Name/State Abbreviation
and Transform that dimension by splitting it. Rename the first split as “County” and the second split as “State.” If you click on
Data
2021/2/2 Project #1: Unemployment: ECON 315, Section 001: Labor Economics (22111–UP—CRECON—-315——-001-)
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/pages/project-number-1-unemployment?module_item_id=31291981 4/7
Source
in the bottom menu bar, you can verify you named them correctly. Right-click on each new measure and be sure that they are assigned the correct geographic role.
You’ll need to create a new calculated field in order to display the unemployment rate. The datafile you uploaded has information for the number of people employed and unemployed in the county. Right-click in the measures menu and select “Create Calculated Field.” Name this new field Unemployment Rate and use the empty space to take the measures you already have(employment and unemployment) and calculate the unemployment rate. You may need to visit your class notes to see how to do that. Leave your calculation as a decimal (don’t multiple by 100)because we want to format the measure as a percentage. After you create the new field, right-click on
Unemployment Rate
, and set the default property of the number format as a percentage. You can check your Data Source to see if you did the calculation and transformation correctly. This measure only looks at the U-3 level of unemployment, so be sure to discuss the issues of using this measure in your write-up. This is particularly important in the context of the 2020pandemic.
Drag
State
from the dimensions window to the filter window and select only your state. Select
County
from the dimension window and
Unemployment Rate
from the measures section then select
maps
from the
Show Me
tab. Be sure that you select a choropleth map and not a symbol map. Some counties may not be filled in, but that’s because Tableau needs more information. To fill in those missing counties, select Map from the main menu and then “Edit Locations.” Change State/Province to Fixed and then select your state. This should identify all of them, but if there are still some undefined, you can type in the name to link it with the correct county name. The default coloring is set so that it’s based on a range of values, but let’s change the color range to be diverging instead of sequential. Select Colors from the Marks card and change the Palette to a custom diverging. You can change the colors by clicking the boxes on the left and right of the range. Under advanced options set the center value to be the same percentage as the state average for April 2020. You can get that information from your first visualization.
Hover over the counties to find the county with the highest unemployment. You can verify this by looking at your color range. Right-click on that county and annotate this mark. Update the annotation to be presentable and informative. In the right menu under the color legend, right-click and add a highlighter tool for counties. This will allow people to search for a county on your map and highlight it for them.
Update the formatting of your visualization to enhance its presentation:
Rename your sheet table in the bottom toolbar
Add a title to describe your visualization
Select a color scheme similar to your first visualization (particularly your state’s color)
Rename the title of your color legend card
Set the color opacity of your map to 100%
Remove the other states by “washing out” the background. Go to Maps in the main menu and select map layers. Set Washout to 100%.
Add employment and unemployment totals to the tooltip marks card
Update the tooltip to be more informative

Putting it All Together in a Dashboard
Create a new dashboard and label the tab. Set your dashboard size to be a fixed size that matches “Letter Portrait” (850 x 1100). When you export your dashboard to include in your project appendix, it won’t be distorted. The dashboard is your opportunity to arrange your visualizations before sharing them publicly on your Tableau Public page. A portion of your peer review score is based on how well you organize the visualizations you just created.
I recommend sketching what you want your dashboard to look like before starting your dashboard. When you’re ready, use the horizontal and vertical tiles in the
Objects
section to layout tiles that will hold your visualizations, title, and text boxes. For each project, review
Tableau’s Best Practices for Effective Dashboards (https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/enus/
dashboards_best_practices.htm)
before beginning. Be cognizant of where your legends and tools are on the dashboard. Make sure they are close to the appropriate visualization.
Be sure your dashboard has
at least
the following items:
A clear, distinct title
A general description of fewer than 300 words
The 2 visualizations you made
Highlight tools and legends for your map to be interactive
A note of the source(s) of your data file and the caption for the line chart
Each visualization should be fitted to their tiles when possible. This can be done by clicking on” More Options” within each visualization and selecting “Fit > Entire View.” Make sure there aren’t scroll bars on your dashboard! When you’re done, you will need to export your dashboard as an image to include in your PDF submission. Select ”
Dashboard
” from the menu and then ”
Export Image
” to save the dashboard as a .png file.
Ready to publish it online?
Before you can publish your dashboard to your Tableau Public profile, you need to extract your data by going to ”
Data
” in the menu bar, selecting the title of your sheet, and then “Extract Data. “for each data file. Save this data extraction with your other project files. To publish your dashboard to your Tableau Public account, select ”
Server
” from the menu, then
Tableau Public,
and finally select ”
Save to Tableau Public.”
Your Tableau Public account will open in a web browser and show you a similar view to your last saved position. If you are floating elements instead of using tiles, some things may move around. At the top of your dashboard (in a green bar), select Edit Details. Update the name of your dashboard, and provide a short description. Uncheck the box that allows visitors to download your dashboard. Save these settings and be sure that your dashboard is not hidden on your profile. When your Tableau Public account opens, be sure to have your dashboard public. If you make changes to your Dashboard, you can republish it to your Public profile, and it’ll update for you and maintain the link.
When you’re ready to submit your dashboard for peer review, go to your Tableau Public version of your dashboard and select the sharing icon in the bottom corner of your visualization. Use this link
2021/2/2 Project #1: Unemployment: ECON 315, Section 001: Labor Economics (22111–UP—CRECON—-315——-001-)
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/pages/project-number-1-unemployment?module_item_id=31291981 6/7
to submit your dashboard for peer review
for grading
(https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/assignments/12519585)
. 50% of your project grade comes from peer reviews completed by your classmates and 10% of your project scores come from
peer-reviewing your classmates
(https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/assignments/12519587)

Econ 315 Labor Economics Project 1
.
If you share your Dashboards on any social media accounts (Twitter/FB/IG), please tag me(@Wootenomics). I’m happy to share your work with my followers.
Write Up
You have three pages to summarize any of your visualizations, any articles listed above, and the data you worked with to create your visualizations. Be sure to clearly define the variables and measures you used in your visualizations and provide some connection to the course material we’ve covered this semester. If there are questions listed above, be sure to answer them in your write-up. You should be using in-text citations and include a full set of references for data, articles, and any additional work you include.
Appendix Material
In the appendix (the section after your analysis), include a reference page that lists your references in APA format and an exported image of your Tableau dashboard. Your entire files should be saved as one single PDF and uploaded to Canvas.
Here’s the order:
3-page analysis
Reference page
Dashboard image export
Ready to Submit Your Project?
To submit your project, do the following:
1.
Publish your data visualization to your Tableau Public profile.
2.
Submit the link to your completed dashboard for Peer Review
(https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/assignments/12519585)
3.
Submit your final PDF to Canvas
(https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/assignments/12519586)
Peer Grading
Part of the learning process is to evaluate other students on their organization, presentation, and accuracy of the same dashboard you just completed. Your role as the peer grader is anonymous to the other students you are grading. By providing honest feedback, you can help improve not only their projects but your future ones as well. You will only grade their dashboard not their written paper. Your review should be based on the
quality of the work
, not on whether they completed the work. I need you to be critical. Find areas they can improve.
2021/2/2 Project #1: Unemployment: ECON 315, Section 001: Labor Economics (22111–UP—CRECON—-315——-001-)
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/pages/project-number-1-unemployment?module_item_id=31291981 7/7
You’ll learn two skills in the process: providing feedback to others and self-analysis of your own work. You will be assigned to peer review 5 dashboards through Canvas. I will provide a rubric to judge the quality of work they have submitted. A portion of your final grade will come from the quality of your peer reviews. You can see the list of other students you’ve been assigned to review for this project by going to the
dashboard submission page
(https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2106074/assignments/12519585)
.
Your overall project grade is based on your written analysis, the median score your receive from your peers, and the completion of peer grading. Each peer review you complete will be worth 2%of your project (up to 10% of your grade). 40% of each project score is based on the
median
score you receive from your peers. The last 50% of your project score is based on your written analysis.
We will verify your peer grading through two methods. I will randomly select 15 students for each project and evaluate your ability to provide
accurate reviews
and
constructive feedback
.Second, as my TA calculates the median score for projects, they will alert me if your score deviates too much from the other peer reviews a student receives. Your role as a peer grader is anonymous, so I expect you to provide honest feedback to help others. If you are found to be inflating grades or shirking on the peer grading portion, you will not receive credit for any peer reviews you complete on that project.