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How to use Census LEHD tools to explore educator employment, earnings and graduate outcomes
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Summary
A how-to summary from a Census webinar showing where to find and download LEHD/QWI data, use filters (ownership, NAICS, geography), access PSCO and VEO experimental datasets, and where to find documentation for definitions and schedules.
The U.S. Census Bureau demonstrated several LEHD access points and tools attendees can use to analyze educator employment, earnings and graduate employment flows and to download tables for further analysis.
Host Crystal Jimmerson pointed attendees to the Census Academy (census.gov/academy) for training and recordings. Presenter Erling Dow walked through the LEHD homepage (lehd.ces.census.gov), opened the QWI Explorer, and showed how to change geography (United States to state to county), set industry filters to educational services (NAICS 61), toggle indicators (employment count, turnovers, average monthly earnings), and change NAICS detail (3–4 digit). Dow repeatedly demonstrated the explorer’s interactive features: double-clicking items to isolate a geography, switching between map and chart views, and using the "get data" panel to download raw tables, charts, PDFs or shapefiles.
Key practical points from the Q&A and demo:
- Ownership field: "All ownership" includes state, local and federal employment (so public school teachers are included); "private" is private sector only. Dow suggested users can derive public totals by subtracting private from all ownership if an on-the-fly public filter is not available.
- Data currency: QWI and other tools are updated on a schedule shown in the QWI Explorer; the presenter offered to share the release calendar by email and pointed users to QWI documentation for precise dates.
- Definitions: For technical questions such as the difference between separations and turnovers, the presenter referred attendees to the QWI documentation (QWI 101) rather than answering in detail during the session.
- Geography: QWI provides data down to the county level; OnTheMap supports finer geography such as census tracts and blocks for spatial analyses.
- Experimental products: PSCO provides 1-, 5- and 10-year postgraduation earnings and flows by institution and degree; the presenter said the current PSCO release covered 935 institutions and that Andrew Foote leads the PSCO research effort. VEO (veteran employment outcomes) covers formerly enlisted service members discharged 2002–2021 and reports outcomes by occupation, rank, demographics and geography.
Dow highlighted that nearly all interactive features allow users to export data for offline analysis and to share unique URLs or charts on social media. He encouraged attendees to review the documentation and use the help links provided on the LEHD site if they need further assistance or training.
For hands-on help and workshop requests, the Census pointed users to Census Academy training pages and offered contact details in the webinar materials.
