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This function downloads detailed alternative unemployment measures data from BLS, including U-1 through U-6 measures. The data provides a more comprehensive view of labor market conditions beyond the standard unemployment rate (U-3).

Usage

get_salt(
  only_states = TRUE,
  geometry = FALSE,
  suppress_warnings = TRUE,
  return_diagnostics = FALSE
)

Arguments

only_states

Logical. If TRUE (default), includes only state-level data. If FALSE, includes sub-state areas like New York City where available.

geometry

Logical. If TRUE, uses tigris::states() to download shapefiles for the states to include in the data. If FALSE (default), only returns data table.

suppress_warnings

Logical. If TRUE (default), suppress individual download warnings and diagnostic messages for cleaner output during batch processing. If FALSE, returns the data and prints warnings and messages to the console.

return_diagnostics

Logical. If TRUE, returns a bls_data_collection object with full diagnostics. If FALSE (default), returns just the data table.

Value

By default, returns a data.table with Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization data. If return_diagnostics = TRUE, returns a bls_data_collection object containing data and comprehensive diagnostics. The function also adds derived measures and quartile comparisons across states.

Examples

# \donttest{
# Download state-level SALT data
salt_data <- get_salt()
#> Downloading SALT data from BLS...
#> Processing SALT Excel file...

# View top 10 highest U-6 rates by state in current data
latest <- salt_data |> 
  dplyr::filter(date == max(date)) |> 
  dplyr::select(state, u6) |> 
  dplyr::arrange(-u6)
head(latest)
#> # A tibble: 6 × 2
#>   state                   u6
#>   <chr>                <dbl>
#> 1 California           0.101
#> 2 Nevada               0.096
#> 3 Michigan             0.095
#> 4 District of Columbia 0.09 
#> 5 Oregon               0.088
#> 6 Alaska               0.087

# Include sub-state areas
salt_all <- get_salt(only_states = FALSE)
#> Downloading SALT data from BLS...
#> Processing SALT Excel file...
 
# Download SALT with geometry included
get_salt(geometry = TRUE)
#> Downloading SALT data from BLS...
#> Processing SALT Excel file...
#> Retrieving data for the year 2024
#> 
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#> Simple feature collection with 4437 features and 100 fields
#> Geometry type: MULTIPOLYGON
#> Dimension:     XY
#> Bounding box:  xmin: -3115585 ymin: -1702303 xmax: 2263786 ymax: 1570639
#> Projected CRS: USA_Contiguous_Albers_Equal_Area_Conic
#> # A tibble: 4,437 × 101
#>    fips  state   `unemployed_15+_weeks` job_losers discouraged_workers
#>    <chr> <chr>                    <dbl>      <dbl>               <dbl>
#>  1 01    Alabama                  49300      63200                7200
#>  2 01    Alabama                  52200      61400                7300
#>  3 01    Alabama                  54900      61900                7600
#>  4 01    Alabama                  54400      63700                7500
#>  5 01    Alabama                  52000      57400                7600
#>  6 01    Alabama                  46500      52500                7600
#>  7 01    Alabama                  41300      48300                6700
#>  8 01    Alabama                  37300      39900                4500
#>  9 01    Alabama                  36200      36800                3000
#> 10 01    Alabama                  36800      39300                2900
#> # ℹ 4,427 more rows
#> # ℹ 96 more variables: all_marginally_attached <dbl>,
#> #   involuntary_part_time_employed <dbl>, civilian_labor_force <dbl>,
#> #   employed <dbl>, unemployed <dbl>, u1 <dbl>, u2 <dbl>, u3 <dbl>, u4 <dbl>,
#> #   u5 <dbl>, u6 <dbl>, date <date>, not_job_losers <dbl>,
#> #   unemployed_under_14_weeks <dbl>, losers_notlosers_ratio <dbl>, u1b <dbl>,
#> #   u2b <dbl>, u4b <dbl>, u4c <dbl>, …

# Get full diagnostic object if needed
data_with_diagnostics <- get_salt(return_diagnostics = TRUE)
#> Downloading SALT data from BLS...
#> Processing SALT Excel file...
print_bls_warnings(data_with_diagnostics)
#> No warnings forSALTdata download
# }