How Google Does Unemployment Data

Google has a cool new feature that lets you play around with publicly available data. Search for "unemployment rate" and the top result should be a tool that lets you compare changes in unemployment around the country. You can, for example, graph the total US rate and compare it to the rate in a few counties in Michigan, home of the American auto industry:

(The US rate is 9.1%; in Wayne County -- which has Detroit -- it's 14.6% and in Oscoda County it's 22.3%.)

The feature seems pretty limited so far -- I can't find anything other than the unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and population data from the Census -- but the BLS has tons of data on productivity and compensation that would be wonderful to have too. (And I am certainly in favor of having a new place from which to steal graphs and charts.)

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/04/how-google-does-unemployment-data/16883/