Implementing the Levitan Commission's recommendations to improve labor data, (EXCERPT), Monthly Labor Review Online, February 1985

Implementing the Levitan Commission's
recommendations to improve labor data

Harvey R. Hamel and John T. Tucker

One of the major recommendations of the National Commission on Employment and Unemployment Statistics (also known as the Levitan Commission after its chair, Professor Sar A. Levitan) was that a comprehensive review of the labor force data system be conducted at least once each decade, The Commission was established in 1978, and issued its recommendations in September 1979.¹

Five years have proven a very short period for making changes in the statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has implemented a number of the major recommendations that were approved by the two Secretaries of Labor who have served during this period, and continues testing and developing programs leading to the implementation of others. Some recommendations were found to be either impractical or too costly. Still others may be reexamined when the next review panel is convened. This article summarizes the accomplishments of the BLS in implementing several of the recommendations and in conducting activities preparatory to the adoption of others. It does not cover all the recommendations directed at the BLS or those relating to programs of others agencies.

This excerpt is from an article published in the February 1985 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.

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Footnotes

1 National Commission on Employment and Unemployment Statistics, Counting the Labor Force (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1979).

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