Learning to use Google Sheets, the free, Web-based spreadsheet from Google, is a great introduction to the kind of reporting power that a spreadsheet offers you. This lesson is the first in a series of three introductory lessons aimed at equipping you with the basic data analysis, data visualization, mapping and WordPress skills involved in producing a post like this one on The Data Reporter: Prep now to land a good job after graduation, experts say. These basic skills will prove essential to you. We’ll spend the rest of the semester refining and expanding them so that you’ll finish the class able to do even more.

The Google Sheets Part 1: Getting and Analyzing Data video will show you everything you need to know. Once the video starts playing, you might want to click the “full screen” button to watch the video full screen. Like most videos in the class, there is no sound, only captions. I do that partly to make the videos accessible to hearing-impaired students and partly because captions eliminate the need to dig out ear buds if you happen to be using the video in the library or some other place where audio would be problematic.

Here is a list of the 10 metropolitan statistical areas in Tennessee. The list might come in handy during the filtering step of your analysis:

Clarksville, TN-KY Metropolitan Statistical Area
Memphis, TN-MS-AR Metropolitan Statistical Area
Knoxville, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area
Chattanooga, TN-GA Metropolitan Statistical Area
Jackson, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area
Morristown, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area
Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA Metropolitan Statistical Area
Johnson City, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area
Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area
Cleveland, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area

And here’s the =importhtml function, set up with the arguments needed to retrieve the unemployment data, as shown in the video. You could copy it into Cell A1 of your Google Sheet, then press “Enter::

=importhtml(“http://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laummtch.htm”,”table”,2)