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| LEHD | |
|---|---|
| Name | LEHD |
| Developer | United States Census Bureau |
| Released | 2002 |
| Genre | Longitudinal employment dataset |
| License | Public domain |
LEHD
The Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) program is a U.S. statistical initiative producing linked employer-employee data for labor market research, regional analysis, and policy evaluation. It integrates administrative records and survey data to create microdata and aggregate products used by researchers at Harvard University, Columbia University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California, Berkeley. The program underpins analyses by agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Federal Reserve Board, and state labor market information offices.
LEHD combines employer identifiers and worker records to produce person-level and establishment-level files that enable longitudinal tracking of employment, earnings, and job flows. Its architecture links quarterly unemployment insurance records, business registries, and demographic files to generate products like the Quarterly Workforce Indicators that inform research by scholars at Princeton University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and policy teams at Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, and the International Labour Organization. LEHD output supports studies in urban economics by researchers associated with Brookings Institution, RAND Corporation, Urban Institute, New York University, and metropolitan planning agencies.
LEHD originated in the early 2000s as a collaboration between the United States Census Bureau and academic partners to improve measurement of local labor markets, drawing on precedents such as the Longitudinal Employer-Employee Data initiatives in Germany and Sweden. Major milestones include the 2004 launch of prototype products, the 2006 expansion to statewide coverage, and iterative methodological papers developed with contributors from University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Carnegie Mellon University. Funding and technical partnerships involved entities including the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, National Science Foundation, and state workforce agencies in California, Texas, New York (state), and Florida.
LEHD integrates administrative sources such as Unemployment Insurance wage records, employer reports from state workforce agencies, and business registers from the Internal Revenue Service. It also incorporates demographic linkage using identifiers from decennial census files and the American Community Survey to enrich attributes like age, sex, race, and educational attainment for records that match institutional enumerations from Social Security Administration datasets. Methodologically, LEHD employs record linkage algorithms developed in collaboration with teams from Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Pennsylvania; imputation strategies influenced by work at RAND Corporation and disclosure avoidance methods aligned with guidance from National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Committee on National Statistics.
Core LEHD products include the Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI), the Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES), and longitudinal employer-employee microdata files used under secure access. QWI provides measures such as job creation and separation at granular geographies used by planners at Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and metropolitan governance bodies in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. LODES maps workplace and residence flows, informing commuting studies by researchers at University of Minnesota, University of Washington, and Georgia Institute of Technology. Secure microdata has supported longitudinal analyses at research data centers affiliated with Icpsr, Cornell University, and Boston College.
LEHD outputs support academic research on labor mobility by scholars at Columbia Business School and Wharton School, regional economic modeling by teams at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, and policy evaluation by agencies such as the Economic Development Administration and Department of Transportation. Urban planners use LODES commuting matrices in projects led by municipal governments in Seattle, Philadelphia, Denver, and Phoenix. Public health researchers at Johns Hopkins University and University of California, San Francisco link employment patterns to health outcomes, while workforce development programs in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania use QWI for targeting training investments.
Critics note LEHD’s dependence on administrative records can underrepresent informal employment documented in studies at University of Texas at Austin and University of Florida, and its coverage varies by state depending on local reporting rules examined by scholars at Indiana University and University of Arizona. Privacy advocates referencing work from Electronic Frontier Foundation and legal scholars at Georgetown University and Yale Law School have raised concerns about re-identification risks, prompting methodological responses from the Census Bureau and statisticians at University of Chicago. Others point to delays between administrative events and data availability that limit real-time policy response, a limitation discussed in policy forums at National Governors Association and National Conference of State Legislatures.
LEHD governance resides within the United States Census Bureau with advisory input from academic panels including representatives from University of Michigan, Brown University, and Duke University and stakeholder consultations with state workforce agencies and federal partners such as the Department of Commerce. Public aggregate products are released via online portals used by researchers at National Bureau of Economic Research and planners at American Planning Association, while restricted-use microdata are available through Federal Statistical Research Data Centers and secure enclaves following protocols informed by Office of Management and Budget guidance and legal frameworks interpreted by teams at Georgetown University Law Center.
Category:Census Bureau datasets