© Copyright 2008 by the Wyoming Department of Employment, Research & Planning

WYOMING LABOR FORCE TRENDS

Vol. 45 No. 2

Understanding R&P’s Function

by: April Szuch, Information Specialist

This is the first article in a three-part series (available in full at http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/mission.pdf) detailing the purposes of a statistical agency.

As noted in Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical Agency, “A federal statistical entity is a unit of the federal government whose principal function is the compilation and analysis of data and the dissemination of information for statistical purposes” (Martin, Straf, & Citro, 2005). The document outlines important principles and practices that a federal statistical entity should uphold. It is suggested that statistical agencies across all states should follow the same principles and practices (Gallagher, 2007).

Research & Planning (R&P) is an exclusively statistical entity with the purpose of compiling and analyzing data and making such information available to other government agencies, the public, businesses, and nongovernmental groups. R&P does not administer any worker training, insurance, or regulatory programs.

Mission

A statistical entity should have a clearly defined and well-accepted mission. The mission should define the entity’s responsibility for collecting, measuring, and analyzing data, as well as how the entity will provide the data and collection methods to the public.

The mission of R&P includes the following three sections:

“Our Organization: R&P is a separate, exclusively statistical entity.

“What We Do: R&P collects, analyzes, and publishes timely and accurate labor market information (LMI) meeting established statistical standards.

“Our Customers: LMI makes the labor market more efficient by providing the public and the public’s representatives with the basis for informed decision making.”

Relevance to Public Policy

One of the important principles for a state statistical entity is relevance to policy issues: “A [state] statistical entity must be in a position to provide information relevant to issues of public policy” (Martin et al., 2005). It is the entity’s responsibility to be informed about public policy and state programs and to provide objective information to both private and public groups. This must be done while maintaining neutrality on political issues. A statistical entity’s independence is one of its strongest assets.

Standards and Guidelines for Statistical Surveys

Statistics collected and published by the federal government constitute a significant portion of the available information about the United States’ economy, population, natural resources, environment, and public and private institutions. These data are used by the federal government and others as a basis for actions that affect people’s lives and well-being. It is essential that they be collected, processed, and published in a manner that guarantees and inspires confidence in their reliability.

Source: Management and Budget Office. (2006, September 22). Standards and guidelines for statistical surveys (Federal Register, Vol. 71, No. 184). Retrieved December 12, 2007, from http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/
01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/06-8044.pdf

For example, R&P’s Occasional Paper No. 1: Evaluation of Federal Training & Education Programs (http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/Occasional/No1/toc.htm) addresses public policy issues including the Workforce Investment Act and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Another article useful to policymakers and other interested parties is “Demographic Effects of Wyoming’s Energy-Related Expansion” by Sylvia D. Jones in the April 2007 issue of Wyoming Labor Force Trends (http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/0407/a1.htm).

An entity also has the responsibility to hold government accountable by “obtaining, protecting, and disseminating the data that allow the accurate assessment of the influence of government policies on the public’s well-being” (Duncan, Jabine, & de Wolf, 1993). By keeping in contact with a wide range of data users, including government agencies, elected representatives, statistical agencies in other states, and interested members of the public, a statistical agency such as R&P remains aware of research needs, uses for data, and other avenues of study.

An illustration is R&P’s Wyoming Career Explorer 2006-2007, which was created especially for young people in the state and includes detailed information for a specific audience in the fact sheet “Exploring Math & Science Careers in Wyoming” (http://www.doe.state.wy.us/LMI/
Education/ExploreFlyer.pdf).

References

Duncan, G. T., Jabine, T. B., & de Wolf, V. A. (Eds.). (1993.) Private lives and public policies. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Gallagher, T. (2007). Principles and practices for a state statistical agency. Internal document; also available at http://doe.state.wy.us/LMI/statistical_entity.pdf

Martin, M. E., Straf, M. L., & Citro, C. F. (Eds.). (2005.) Principles and practices for a federal statistical agency (3rd ed.). Washington, D.C.: Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education.

Last modified on by April Szuch.