Abstract
Anne E. Polivka (1994) "Comparisons Of
Labor Force Estimates From The Parallel Survey And The CPS During
1993: Major Labor Force Estimates," CPS Overlap Analysis
Team Technical Report 1 .
The Current Population Survey (CPS), a national survey of
60,000 households, provides a monthly picture of the Nation's
labor force including measurements of total employment,
unemployment, and characteristics of those not in the labor
force. Conceived in the 1940's, the CPS has remained
virtually unchanged since 1967. However, since then, there
have been many societal changes, including growth in service
sector employment; an increase in the role of women in the
labor force, particularly mothers; and shifts in the nature
of employment, such as more part-time work and less permanent
attachment of employees to their employers. In addition,
there have been many advances in survey design techniques and
data collection procedures which facilitate the development
of more accurate measures. To reflect these changes, in 1986,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Bureau of the
Census began a collaborative effort to redesign the CPS. The
primary goal of the redesign was to improve the quality of
the data derived from the survey by modifying the
questionnaire to elicit more accurate data from respondents
and converting all data collection to computer-assisted
interviewing in order to reduce the potential for interviewer
error.
To assess the effects of the redesign, a parallel survey of
12,000 households was conducted using the new collection
procedures and questionnaire for the period July 1992 through
December 1993. In this report, we compare labor force
estimates obtained from the Parallel Survey with estimates
obtained from the CPS . These comparisons provide our best
estimate of the effects of changing from the questionnaire
and data collection procedures used prior to January 1994 to
those used from January 1994 forward.
This document contains two sections. The first section
highlights survey design features relevant to interpreting
the estimates presented in this report. The second summarizes
differences in the estimated unemployment rates,
employment-to-population ratios, and labor force
participation rates from the two surveys (the major labor
force estimates.) Salient findings are highlighted at the
start of each section that contains estimates. Brief
discussions of the reasons for differences between the
surveys are provided in each section. More detailed
discussions of the effects of questionnaire changes and
computer-assisted interviewing can be found in the reports of
the Questionnaire Evaluation Work Group and the Mode Effects
Work Group The questions used in both surveys to classify an
individual's labor force status appear side-by-side in
appendix A. The questions are presented by series. A second
technical report will discuss estimates of the
characteristics of the unemployed, employed, and those not in
the labor force (e.g., the duration of unemployment, the
estimated percentage of the employed who are part time for
economic reasons, and the estimated percentage of those who
are not in the labor force who are discouraged workers.)
Throughout this report, the estimates generated from the data
collected with the "old" questionnaire and the
State-based 60,000 household sample will be referred to as
the CPS estimates or the CPS. Estimates generated from the
data collected with the "new" revised questionnaire
using the 12,000 household national parallel survey will be
referred to as the Parallel Survey estimates or the Parallel
Survey.
This report is preliminary. More detailed discussion and
analysis of the data will be presented in a final version of
this report. In addition, the final version will include an
examination of data related to the consistency of the
estimates, such as gross flow and month-in-sample estimates.
Last Modified Date: July 19, 2008
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