U.S. Census Bureau Conducts Workshop with County Government Staff

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md., -- July 12, 2005 -- Members of the Calvert County, Md. Departments of Economic Development and Planning & Zoning participated in a work session last week with experts from the U.S. Census Bureau to learn about the many statistical tools and resources that are available through the federal agency. Both County Departments rely heavily on the Census Bureau’s demographic data to plan major development projects, study and benchmark trends in workforce habits, salaries and housing, and project what the County’s infrastructural needs will be in the future.

In particular, the American Community Survey (ACS) is a new nationwide survey designed to provide communities with a fresh look at how they are changing. The decennial census has two parts: 1) the short form, which simply counts the population; and 2) the long form, which delves deeper to obtain demographic, housing, social and economic information. Since the decennial census is conducted only once every 10 years, long-form information quickly becomes out-dated and irrelevant. Kenneth Bryson, Program Analyst for the ACS at the U.S. Census Bureau said, “We realize that data that comes out every 10 years is not very helpful to communities. The ACS allows us to spread out the form over the decade by sending out batches every month to a random sampling of households in a geographic area to produce multi-year estimates and characteristics.” The ACS will replace the long form in the future and is part of the Census Bureau’s reengineered 2010 census plan.

Bryson reported that 2.5 percent of Calvert County’s households will receive the ACS each year. Addresses are selected at random by pulling from databases provided by the U.S. Postal Service.

Another of the Census Bureau’s new tools is the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) program. LED is the cornerstone of a program designed to develop new information about local labor market conditions at low cost, with no added respondent burden, and with the same confidentiality of census and survey data. This partnership between state labor market information agencies and the Census Bureau supplies new Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) on labor markets that 1) is local, at the state, county and sub county level; 2) supplies statistics on employment, job creation, turnover, and earnings by industry, age and gender; and 3) provides dynamic information on the rapidly changing economy.

Jim Shepherd, Business Development Specialist for the Department of Economic Development, is optimistic that the data provided by the ACS and LED will give the County better information to work with in conducting its long-range plans. “In an area like Southern Maryland that is changing so rapidly, data that is 10 or even five years old quickly becomes outdated and useless,” he said. “The ability to project population growth, household income, school enrollment, commuting patterns and industries with the highest rate of job growth will be a very powerful tool in our planning process.”

For more information about the ACS, visit the U.S. Census Bureau’s Web site at http://www.census.gov/acs/; to learn about LED, visit http://lehd.dsd.census.gov/led/.

For more information on the Calvert County, Maryland Department of Economic Development, our visitor sites and attractions and the services available to assist County businesses, call 410.535.4583, 800.331.9771 or 301.855.1880; or send an e-mail to info@ecalvert.com