Unemployment [Washington (State)]
State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal · 2025 Full Details
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Full Details
- Title
- Unemployment [Washington (State)]
- Description
- This data is included as part of the Environmental Health Disparities Version 3.0 map. To see this map, visit our webpage . For more technical information on this map and the model used, visit our technical report (link). Background Unemployment is a major factor in health and well-being. Employment opportunities vary across Washington state. Communities of color experience greater risk of higher levels of unemployment. This does not only stem from individual-level bias. It also comes from structural inequities in education, the justice system, business and government investment. Being unemployed can increase financial and emotional stress. This, in turn, can significantly impact mental and physical health. Long-term unemployment may lead to increased sickness and death. For example, communities with high unemployment rates tend to also have higher rates of heart disease. While unemployed, people may experience financial strain. As a result, they may have reduced access to healthcare, insurance, and nutritious food. This leads to an increased risk of adverse health outcomes. Unemployment may also lead people to seek housing in areas that are more affordable but are exposed to higher levels of pollution. Chronic stress from unemployment may also lead to an increased susceptibility to environmental pollutants. Evidence Community unemployment rates are correlated with pollution emissions [1] and vehicle-related particulate matter pollution [2]. Unemployment is also closely tied to negative health outcomes. Unemployed people report experiencing more physical and mental unhealthy days [3]. They experience higher levels of atherosclerosis that may lead to heart disease [4] and higher mortality rates [5]. Long-term unemployment may increase risk of developing aging-related diseases [6]. Data source American Community Survey 5-year estimates, DP03 - Selected Economic Characteristics Methods The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) asks respondents detailed questions on social and economic topics. This measure was developed using census tract-level employment data from the ACS's 2018-2022 5-year estimates. This measure represents the percent of the population in the civilian workforce over 16 years old that report being unemployed. The ACS counts people as "unemployed" if they did not work in the last week for reasons other than temporary absence (vacation, illness, etc.) AND were actively looking for work in the last 4 weeks AND were available to start a job. This number also includes individuals who are waiting to be recalled to a job they were laid off from. For more information on how ACS data is collected and processed, refer to ACS General Data Users Handbooks . Data Source Variables Used Calculations Performed* ACS 5-year average, DP03 - Selected Economic Characteristics DP03_0003, DP03_0005, DP03_0009P # unemployed: DP03_0005 # in the civilian labor force: DP03_0003 % of civilian labor force unemployed: DP03_0009P * For margin of error (MOE) calculations, refer to U.S. Census Bureau, A Compass for Understanding and Using American Community Survey Data Appendix 1 . For MOEs in which we either derived the numerator or denominator of a proportion from multiple ACS variables, see "Calculating MOEs for Aggregated Count Data." For MOEs derived from proportions, see "Calculating MOEs for Derived Proportions." The data table shows the estimate for this variable minus the MOE (lower ME) and the estimate plus the MOE (upper ME). Caveats The margin of error shows how much uncertainty there is about whether the survey data accurately represents the full population. The confidence interval is the estimate plus or minus the margin of error. There is a 90 percent probability that the true population value is within the confidence interval, after accounting for sampling variability. All survey data have some margin of error due to sampling variability. Results from smaller populations are less reliable because of their smaller sample sizes, leading to a larger margin of error. Counts for American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations are known to be less reliable. The survey design attempts to address these issues through increased sampling rates in smaller populations and on Tribal lands. The data may also have non-sampling errors, which aren't shown in the tables. These can happen if there are problems with the survey questions, if there are issues with processing or weighting the data, or if certain groups of people don't respond [7]. Individuals with a distrust for government, more concerns about privacy, and who are very busy are less likely to respond to the survey. This measure is aggregated across the census tract and does not represent each individual community within the tract. These data should always be supplemented with local data and equitable engagement for more accurate insights. ACS bundles data in one-year, three-year, or five-year groups to get more reliable results. To have census tract data on all 39 counties in Washington, we use the ACS five-year grouping. Sources Premji, S., Bertrand, F., Smargiassi, A., & Daniel, M. (2007). Socioeconomic correlates of municipal-level pollution emissions on Montreal Island. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 98(2), 138-42. Davis, M., Laden, F., Hart, J., Garshick , E., & Smith, T. (2010). Economic activity and trends in ambient air pollution. Environmental Health Perspectives, 118(5), 614-9. Athar, H., Chang, M., Hahn, R., Walker, E., & Yoon, P. (2013). Unemployment - United States, 2006 and 2010. MMWR-Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 62(3), 27-32. Dragano , N., Hoffmann, B., Stang, A., Moebus, S., Verde, P., Weyers, E., et al. (2009). Subclinical coronary atherosclerosis and neighbourhood deprivation in an urban region. European Journal of Epidemiology, 24(1), 25-35. Tapia Granados, J., House, J., Ionides , E., Burgard, S., & Schoeni, R. (2014). Individual joblessness, contextual unemployment, and mortality risk. American Journal of Epidemiology, 180(3), 280-7. Ala- Mursula , L., Buxton, J., Ek , E., Koiranen , M., Taanila , A., Blakemore , A., et al. (2013). Long-term unemployment is associated with short telomeres in 31-year-old men: An observational study in the northern Finland birth cohort 1966. PLoS One, 8(11), E80094. Pickering, K. (2022, December 9). Nonresponse in census surveys [PDF]. Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. https://apps.bea.gov/fesac/meetings/2022-12-09/Pickering-FESACNonresponse-in-Census-Surveys-12092022.pdf Citation Washington Tracking Network, Washington State Department of Health. Web. "Unemployment". Data obtained from the American Community Survey, 2019-2023, DP03 - Selected Economic Characteristics Data. Published September 2025.
- Creator
- WADOH
- Publisher
- State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal
- Temporal Coverage
- Last Modified: 2025-07-21
- Date Issued
- 2025-07-08
- Rights
- Neither the Washington State Department of Health (WADOH), nor any agency, officer, or employee of the WADOH warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by this system, nor endorses any content, viewpoints, products, or services linked from this system, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity who relies on any information obtained from this system does so at their own risk.
- Access Rights
- Public
- Format
- ArcGIS FeatureLayer
- Language
- English
- Date Added
- February 02, 2026
- Provenance Statement
- The metadata for this resource was last retrieved from State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal on 2026-02-02.
Cite and Reference
-
Citation
WADOH (2025). Unemployment [Washington (State)]. State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal. https://geo.wa.gov/datasets/a220dba6289f4d0aa159561c5f26d1ef_0 (web service) -
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