DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS
Commonly Used Terms in BLS Employment Statistics
Before the recent release of the first set of official disability employment data, conflicting numbers were available from various sources. With the release, citizens and their representatives now have available data and analyses that comply with established standards set forth by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). On its website, BLS provides answers to frequently asked questions about the disability data. The following is an abbreviated version of that information. You may also want to refer to the BLS glossary.
The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor force, employment, unemployment and persons not in the labor force.
The basic concepts involved in identifying the employed and unemployed are quite simple:
- People with jobs are employed.
- People who are jobless, looking for jobs, and available for work are unemployed.
- People who are neither employed nor unemployed are not in the labor force.
Labor force measures are based on the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years old and over. Excluded are persons under 16 years of age, all inmates of institutions and persons on active duty in the Armed Forces. All other members of the civilian noninstitutional population are eligible for inclusion in the labor force, and those 16 and over who have a job or are actively looking for one and available to work are so classified.
The Unemployment Rate tells you the percent of the labor force that is unemployed.
At this time, the disability employment statistics are not Seasonally Adjusted; i.e., the results are not adjusted for changes in weather, reduced or expanded production, harvests, major holidays, and the opening and closing of schools (see http://www.bls.gov/cps/eetech_seas.pdf).
BLS economists provide additional explanation in Explaining Employment and Unemployment Stats, a video posted here.
