Current labor statistics

Monthly Labor Review, Oct, 2004

Definitions

Employed persons include (1) all those who worked for pay any time during the week which includes the 12th day of the month or who worked unpaid for 15 hours or more in a family-operated enterprise and (2) those who were temporarily absent from their regular jobs because of illness, vacation, industrial dispute, or similar reasons. A person working at more than one job is counted only in the job at which he or she worked the greatest number of hours.

Unemployed persons are those who did not work during the survey week, but were available for work except for temporary illness and had looked for jobs within the preceding 4 weeks. Persons who did not look for work because they were on layoff are also counted among the unemployed. The unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force.

The civilian labor force consists of all employed or unemployed persons in the civilian noninstitutional population. Persons not in the labor force are those not classified as employed or unemployed. This group includes discouraged workers, defined as persons who want and are available for a job and who have looked for work sometime in the past 12 months (or since the end of their last job if they held one within the past 12 months), but are not currently looking, because they believe there are no jobs available or there are none for which they would qualify. The civilian noninstitutional population comprises all persons 16 years of age and older who are not inmates of penal or mental institutions, sanitariums, or homes for the aged, infirm, or needy. The civilian labor force participation rate is the proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population that is in the labor force. The employment-population ratio is employment as a percent of the civilian noninstitutional population.

Notes on the data

From time to time, and especially after a decennial census, adjustments are made in the Current Population Survey figures to correct for estimating errors during the intercensal years. These adjustments affect the comparability of historical data. A description of these adjustments and their effect on the various data series appears in the Explanatory Notes of Employment and Earnings. For a discussion of changes introduced in January 2003, see "Revisions to the Current Population Survey Effective in January 2003" in the February 2003 issue of Employment and Earnings (available on the BLS Web site at: http://www.bls.gov/ cps/rvcps03.pdf).

Effective in January 2003, BLS began using the X-12 ARIMA seasonal adjustment program to seasonally adjust national labor force data. This program replaced the X-II ARIMA program which had been used since January 1980. See "Revision of Seasonally Adjusted Labor Force Series in 2003," in the February 2003 issue of Employment and Earnings (available on the BLS Web site at http:www.bls.gov/cps/cpsrs.pdf) for a discussion of the introduction of the use of X-12 ARIMA for seasonal adjustment of the labor force data and the effects that it had on the data.