The ASA is asking the government not to include scientific and statistical jobs in a new rule that could make it easier to fire federal workers, saying these roles should stay separate from politics so the public can trust the data and decisions based on it.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The ADA: A Civil Rights and Statistical Milestone
Although much work remains, the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act has changed the landscape for people with disabilities with stronger legal protections, improved access, and more acceptance in society.
Drake Gibson
Drake Gibson is a lifelong Prince George’s County, Maryland, resident who became passionate about data science after learning to program in R and Python in graduate school. While working at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he took on projects that enhanced his knowledge—his colleagues noticed and encouraged him to apply to be a data scientist.
My ASA Story: Mike Jadoo, Bureau of Labor Statistics Economist
Mike Jadoo, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Office of Productivity and Technology, first learned about the American Statistical Association from a coworker who was going to the Joint Statistical Meetings.
Stephanie Shipp: ‘Democratizing’ Data Science to Serve the Public Good
Shipp is the interim director and a professor at the Social and Decision Analytics Division within the Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Virginia. Working with Sallie Keller, the founding director, she built and developed the division for “democratizing” data science to serve the public good.
State of the Workforce Data Infrastructure
In the latest feature examining the state of the US data infrastructure, the Count on Stats team spoke with three experts on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Katharine Abraham was BLS commissioner from 1993–2001, and Erica Groshen was BLS commissioner from 2013–2017. Ken Poole is the chief executive officer of the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness and longtime and widely recognized leader in the BLS data user community.
2022 Research Fellowships at BLS, BEA Available
The ASA, in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis under a grant from the National Science Foundation, is offering senior research fellow programs.
State of the Criminal Justice Data Infrastructure
ASA’s Count on Stats team spoke with three former BJS leaders about their perspectives on the state of criminal justice statistics.
ASA, COPAFS, Partners Urge Bolstering of Federal Statistical Agencies
Federal statistics have undergirded our democracy, society, and economy since the nation’s founding. Even as their importance has increased over the centuries—especially recently with the focus on evidence-based policymaking—the agencies producing the data have been neglected, lost important autonomy and statutory protections, and been pushed deeper into the federal bureaucracy.
FY21 Federal Budget Finalized
![Figure 1 shows the budgets of the seven mid-sized statistical agencies normalized to their FY09 levels, along with the GDP deflator to account for inflation. Budget restructuring for ERS in FY15 and ORES in FY19 are accounted for in the graph to allow for comparison over this time period. One-time moving costs in FY16 for BEA are also omitted. [Key: BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis; BJS, Bureau of Justice Statistics; BTS, Bureau of Transportation Statistics; ERS, USDA Economic Research Service; NCSES, NSF National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; ORES, Social Security Administration Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics; SOI, IRS Statistics of Income Division]](https://magazine.amstat.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/FY_Figure1_-150x150.jpg)
The NIH, NSF, and several federal statistical agencies received increases, but many are facing fiscal challenges after years of purchasing power loss.