Why Doesn’t Emsi Publish More Detailed Unemployment Data?

At first glance, it appears that StatCan offers unemployment data for 4-digit NAICS. However, StatCan actually offers unemployment data for 23 of their own industry groupings, some of which combine one or two 4-digit NAICS with one or more higher-level NAICS. They do not offer unemployment data for any single 4-digit NAICS, or any group of only 4-digit NAICS.

The following are the 23 most detailed industries for which StatCan offers unemployment data. The NAICS in parentheses are the NAICS contained in the StatCan unemployment category (e.g. StatCan’s unemployment data for “Agriculture” is for a combination of NAICS 111-112, 1100, and 1151-1152):

• Agriculture (111-112, 1100, 1151-1152)
• Forestry and logging and support activities for forestry (21, 113-114, 1153, 2100)
• Fishing, hunting and trapping (114)
• Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (21, 2100)
• Utilities (22)
• Construction (23)
• [Manufacturing] Durables (321, 327, 331-339)
• [Manufacturing] Non-durables (311-316, 322-326)
• Wholesale Trade (41)
• Retail Trade (44-45)
• Transportation and Warehousing (48-49)
• Finance and Insurance (52)
• Real estate and rental and leasing (53)
• Professional, scientific and technical services (54)
• Business, building and other support services (55, 56)
• Educational services (61)
• Health care and social assistance (62)
• Information, culture and recreation (51, 71)
• Accommodation and food services (72)
• Other services (except public administration) (81)
• Public administration (91)

Since it is not reasonable to infer unemployment for any 3- or 4-digit NAICS given the data available, Emsi combines the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing groups into one Agriculture group, and combines the Durable and Non-durable groups into one Manufacturing group. Thus, Emsi offers unemployment data for the complete 2-digit NAICS series.