Letters to the editor, July
1998
- To the Editors:
-
- I was pleased to see the clear explanation
in the box entitled "Reconciling differences in
employment estimates from the Current Population Survey
(Household Survey) and the Current Employment Statistics
Survey (Establishment Survey)" in the article by
Randy E. Ilg and Angela Clinton in the February 1998 Monthly
Labor Review. As someone who has to constantly repeat
that litany, I am pleased to be able to refer skeptics to
the box.
-
- However, there is a serious omission from
the box. From my standpoint, I am pleased to see that you
recognized that commuters from Canada and Mexico are
included in the Current Employment Statistics (CES) Survey but not in the
Current Population Survey (CPS). I have done a survey of border crossers for
the ports of entry in San Diego and Imperial Counties and
know there are commuters who reside in California (United
States) and work in Baja California (Mexico). For the San
Diego/Tijuana ports of entry, we found approximately
35,000 commuters who legally work in California and
10,000 commuters to Baja California in 1992. While your
box takes the former into account, I will still have to
explain that the commuters from California to Baja
California are included in the CPS but not in the CES.
-
- Sincerely,
- Millicent Cox, Ph.D
- San Diego, California
-
-
- Mr. Ilg and Ms. Clinton reply:
-
- Taking into account the persons who live
in the United States (and thus represented in the Current
Population Survey) but who work in a neighboring country
(and thus in jobs that are not counted in the Current
Employment Statistics Survey) does complete the logic of
the reconciliation exercise. The number of people
involved may be considerably smaller than your border
crossing data suggest, however. According to the 1990
Census data on the journey to work, 7,247 U.S. residents
worked in Mexico for the bulk of the 1990 census
reference week. Of these, more than half were from Texas,
a quarter were from California, and 7.1 percent were from
Arizona. An additional 4,668 American residents were
working in Canada.
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