The data laid out in the spreadsheet lists many pieces of information involving Arkansas counties and the people who live in them. The information is separated to show statistics involving the economic situations in each county (employment, unemployment, salaries, healthcare, etc.).
The purpose of this blogpost is to use the data presented to determine the county with the highest median household income and the county with the lowest median household income.
Based on the table, the county with the highest median household income would be Benton Co. with 59,016. The county with the lowest median household income would be Lee Co. with 25,724.
In doing further research on the table, one can see that Benton Co. has a 2.2-percent unemployment rate compared to Lee Co.’s 6.7 percent. Based on that information, one can see that Benton Co. has a lower unemployment rate, meaning more citizens work and therefore have more money to spend. That observation doesn’t take into consideration those who work menial jobs with minimum wage. At the same time, Lee Co. has a higher unemployment rate, meaning fewer people have jobs and, therefore, not as much money in their households.
Andrew — Please put your name on the blog posts because WordPress does not do that automatically. Use the Student Work Spring18 category on your blog posts. Tks
You are correct about the highest and lowest median incomes. Remember to use dollar signs: $ …”Benton Co. with $59,016. The county with the lowest median household income would be Lee Co. with $25,724.”
Nice catch about the unemployment rates.
I was looking for some material on the Nickel and Dimed readings. See the homework item below. Please update your post before class. Thanks
HOMEWORK
For Readings for Jan 25
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Macmillan, 2001. Introduction, Ch. 1
Cohen, Sarah. Numbers in the Newsroom. Ch. 1-2, focus on Rates and Ratios.
Data Homework: Blog post with census household data by county. Highest and lowest median household income. Use this data: Simplified Poverty SS
Blog, due 11:59 pm Tuesday, Jan 23:
1) Nickel & Dimed: Ehrenreich provides a roadmap for how to write about the working poor. I want you to describe some of the issues she has to confront as she moves into this new life – housing, transportation, food and so forth.
2) Based on this reading, begin to develop questions for interview subjects about their experience in the low-wage labor force. Include ideas of where you would go and contact people for our stories.
Bonus: Go and speak to actual people.