Unemployment (ACS)

The share of each Georgia community's civilian labor force that is unemployed - American Community Survey 5-year averages down to the census-tract level.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
Year coverage: 2020–2024
Updated: annual
Version: 1.0.0
Schema hash: 610c57ed3696

Detail levels available

StateCounty · defaultDistrict

Overview

Unemployment from the American Community Survey 5-year estimates (detailed table B23025, Employment Status for the Population 16 Years and Over), for Georgia at state, county, school district, and census tract geography, vintages 2020-2024: the unemployed share of the civilian labor force, with the underlying counts and 90 percent margins of error.

Row grain: One row per year, county_fips, district_code, tract_geoid.

Key metric

unemployment_rate — Unemployment Rate (proportion)

The single headline value most answers want.

JSON schema →Data contract (YAML) →

Variables

Every column in the fact table. The code is the exact field name the API returns.

Column	Type	Unit	Range	Null?	Description
`year`Year	integer	—	—	no	ACS 5-year vintage END year: 2024 covers the pooled 2020-2024 survey period. Consecutive vintages overlap. Full description▾ ACS 5-year vintage END year: 2024 covers the pooled 2020-2024 survey period. Consecutive vintages overlap.
`county_fips`County FIPS	string	—	—	yes	5-digit county FIPS code (state 13 + county). Populated only on county-level rows. Full description▾ 5-digit county FIPS code (state 13 + county). Populated only on county-level rows. Joins counties; adds its label columns.
`district_code`District Code	string	—	—	yes	GCD school district code (FK to the education districts dimension). Populated only on district-level rows - Census unified-school-district estimates mapped onto the ~180 standard districts. Full description▾ GCD school district code (FK to the education districts dimension). Populated only on district-level rows - Census unified-school-district estimates mapped onto the ~180 standard districts. Joins districts; adds its label columns.
`tract_geoid`Tract GEOID	string	—	—	yes	11-digit census tract GEOID (2020 boundaries). Populated only on tract-level rows. Full description▾ 11-digit census tract GEOID (2020 boundaries). Populated only on tract-level rows. Joins tracts; adds its label columns.
`unemployment_rate`Unemployment Rate	number	proportion	—	yes	Unemployed share of the civilian labor force. Full description▾ Unemployed residents as a share of the civilian labor force (0-1), derived as num_unemployed / num_civilian_labor_force. NULL when the geography has no civilian labor force. A 5-year survey average - not the official BLS LAUS series.
`unemployment_rate_moe`Unemployment Rate Moe	number	proportion	—	yes	90 percent margin of error for unemployment_rate, derived from the published count margins with the Census ratio formula. A rate of exactly 0 or 1 (0 or 100 percent) instead takes the Census's own model margin for such estimates, 1.645 * sqrt(R * (1 - R) * AW / N) with R = min(2.3 * AW / N, 0.5), N the denominator and AW Georgia's average survey weight for the vintage (18 in 2020, 19 in 2021-2024): the ratio formula would give a 0 percent rate only the zero count's margin over N, about half the width the Census publishes. Never the headline metric. Full description▾ 90 percent margin of error for unemployment_rate, derived from the published count margins with the Census ratio formula. A rate of exactly 0 or 1 (0 or 100 percent) instead takes the Census's own model margin for such estimates, 1.645 * sqrt(R * (1 - R) * AW / N) with R = min(2.3 * AW / N, 0.5), N the denominator and AW Georgia's average survey weight for the vintage (18 in 2020, 19 in 2021-2024): the ratio formula would give a 0 percent rate only the zero count's margin over N, about half the width the Census publishes. Never the headline metric.
`num_unemployed`Number Unemployed	integer	count	—	yes	Unemployed civilians 16 and over (ACS estimate) - the rate's numerator. Full description▾ Unemployed civilians 16 and over (ACS estimate) - the rate's numerator.
`num_unemployed_moe`Number Unemployed Moe	integer	count	—	yes	90 percent margin of error for num_unemployed, as published. Full description▾ 90 percent margin of error for num_unemployed, as published.
`num_civilian_labor_force`Number Civilian Labor Force	integer	count	—	yes	Civilian labor force 16 and over (ACS estimate) - the rate's denominator. Armed forces excluded. Full description▾ Civilian labor force 16 and over (ACS estimate) - the rate's denominator. Armed forces excluded.
`num_civilian_labor_force_moe`Number Civilian Labor Force Moe	integer	count	—	yes	90 percent margin of error for num_civilian_labor_force, as published. Full description▾ 90 percent margin of error for num_civilian_labor_force, as published.

Filters

Query parameters the fact endpoint accepts. Comma-separated values are OR within a parameter; multiple parameters AND together.

Parameter	Kind	Allowed values	Notes
`year`	year_exact	any value	—
`year_min`	year_range	any value	—
`year_max`	year_range	any value	—
`detail`	detail	`countiesdistrictsstatestracts`	enum-enforced, default: counties
`district_code`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`county_fips`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`tract_geoid`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`district_type`	dimension_attribute	7 allowed values▾ `commission_charter` `resa` `standard` `state_agency` `state_charter` `state_school` `state_special`	multi-value, enum-enforced

Example requests

Run these against the base URL — they return live data.

All rows (first page), counties level

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/employment"

counties data for 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/employment?year=2024"

One district (code 660), 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/employment?district_code=660&year=2024&detail=districts"

One county (FIPS 13121), 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/employment?county_fips=13121&year=2024&detail=counties"

Download 2024 as CSV

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/employment?year=2024&format=csv"

Notes & limitations

NULL handling

Suppressed cells (values the source withholds, usually for a group too small to report) are NULL, never zero.
Zero is a real, reported value.

Limitations

Universe: population 16 years and over; the denominator is the CIVILIAN labor force (armed forces excluded). ACS unemployment is a 5-year survey average - related to but NOT the official BLS LAUS county unemployment series, and the 2020-2024 vintages pool the COVID years. unemployment_rate_moe is derived from the published count MOEs with the Census ratio formula (a 0 or 100 percent rate takes the Census's own model margin for such estimates); a degenerate small-sample margin above 1.0 is set to NULL. ACS 5-year period estimates: the year column is the vintage END year and each estimate pools five years of survey responses (2024 = 2020-2024). Consecutive vintages share about 80% of their sample, so the series is heavily smoothed - never difference overlapping vintages as if they were annual change. Estimates are survey-based and carry 90% margins of error (the *_moe columns); tract-level margins can be large relative to the estimate. All levels serve vintages 2020-2024 only, on 2020-vintage tract boundaries. State rows have NULL county_fips, district_code, and tract_geoid; county rows carry only county_fips, district rows only district_code, tract rows only tract_geoid. District rows cover the ~180 standard (city/county) districts only: the Census publishes school-district estimates at unified school district geography, which has no codes for charter schools, RESAs, or state agencies, and its few Census-only districts (e.g. the Fort Stewart military district) have no GCD district code and are dropped.