How reliable is the economic census?

Question

The US Census generates an economic census every so often. I think the most recient was in 2002. It indicates that Attorneys average $60,000 but i know over 100 attorneys in our town and only 3 or 4 make more than $60,000. Further, about half of all matters heard in the courts are criminal matters and, in our county, the attorneys make less than minimum wage for that work. There are abuot 1,000,000 attorneys in the US which means there is one for every 300 people and one for every 10 businesses. I've also looked at graphic arts census data. It says that the average hourly wage is $12.40 an hour but graphic artist in our area make about $8.00 an hour. Sales jobs also don't match with the data. Is the census wrong?

Answer 1

They average the data from a vast number of regions, cities and statistical marketing areas in the US to derive the mean, median and mode, reporting the average.  Take my profession, I live in a city that has a low average overall salary and make much more than the average person in my field both for my city, my county and my region.  But I've been in the field for 30 years and my business in a much larger market, so I have world wide clientel.  The census I took in 2002 which is a very involved survey to collect economic data, just didn't ask about those factors and other data which influences the overall outcome.  Moreover, in my area there is a huge underground economy comprised of illegal aliens who do not report their incomes.  This effectively lowers the data for particular industries, like construction for example, because they work for cash at a lower per hour rate than those in the trades, unions or who pay taxes.  That skews the data and actually lowers the per hour average for people who work in those fields in my entire region, but it goes unreported because illegal aliens do not take part in the economic census.

Answer 2

There is certainly some degree of error in the US census due to the fact that these numbers are estimates derived from inferential statistics.. but you should also know that your entire town is A LOT smaller than the entire united states... while the people in your town tend to be below the bar in terms of their wages, there is most likely many more towns in other states where the people's wages are far above the average... it's all about geography.

hope that makes sense to you.