How a data geek researcher chooses to spend her idle summer days

If you’re curious about short-term (‘22 to ‘23) fast growing and declining areas, the growth of the largest areas in our country, or what a data geek likes to do when procrastinating on housework, take a look at this document.

I started this on an idle June day — partly inspired by enjoying the town description intros in the true crime comedy podcast Small Town Murder — when I started playing with some BLS metro area jobs data. That data play evolved into this document. Because, yes, I like to play with data for fun.

I finally wrapped it up this afternoon before diving into a new work engagement (more on that later) and the back to school rush of preparations and activities.

Maybe next time I can do something like this for your community or project, when I would take a dive into longer-term patterns and other factors of what may be impacting your area’s growth or decline.

Metro Area Job Change 2022 to 2023.pdf

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