Internet collection at the Bureau of Labor Statistics: an option to report data: Most BLS programs offer employers multiple options for reporting data; the BLS approach to Internet data collection is to provide a single, manageable, secure architecture for all programs

Monthly Labor Review, Feb, 2006 by Stephen Cohen, Dee McCarthy, Richard Rosen, William Wiatrowski

Many of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) statistical programs that collect data from employers, such as those reporting on employment, compensation, or occupational injuries and illnesses, are introducing Internet-based data collection. Among the reasons for offering Internet collection is the availability of reporting choices for employers, the potential to reduce BLS costs associated with mailing or data entry, and the potential to reduce employer burden, or the perception of burden. Multimode surveys that include the Internet allow respondents to select the most suitable mode for their circumstances, which may reduce burden. Internet-based data collection also augments the palette of the questionnaire designer by adding to it Internet technologies such as hyperlinks, color manipulation, dynamic graphics, and multimedia players that can provide instructions visually and/or orally.

This article reviews the BLS experience with collecting data over the Internet. BLS is in the process of incorporating Internet-based data collection into a number of its establishment surveys. Internet collection is typically offered to employers as one of several options for reporting their data. BLS benefits from Internet collection as well, with the potential to:

* Control certain costs

* Improve response rates

* Decrease burden, or the perception of burden

* Improve data quality

* For surveys with multiple deadlines--reduce revisions between preliminary and final estimates

The BLS approach to Internet data collection is to provide a single, manageable, secure architecture. Known as the Internet Data Collection Facility (IDCF), this facility has the following characteristics:

* A single entry point for all BLS surveys

* A common look and feel across surveys

* Support for multisurvey respondents

* Multiple levels of security

* A unique firewall, separate from the main firewall that protects internal BLS data

* Access controlled by DES issued accounts/ passwords and digital certificates

* A single infrastructure, which helps to control monitoring and risk assessment activities

BLS is responsible for collecting data related to the workforce and is organized by program area, such as employment, prices, productivity, compensation, and occupational safety and health. The Internet collection initiative discussed here is available for data collected from employers. (1) Each BLS program that collects data from employers uses a variety of collection methodologies. For programs that are administered jointly with the States, initial collection is often by mail, with telephone follow-up of nonrespondents handled by State employees. At the other extreme, most surveys in the compensation and price programs are collected through a personal visit by a BLS staff member, with mail used for periodic updating of data. (2)

BLS has begun to give respondents to some of its programs the option of recording their responses on the Internet. The following programs either currently collect data via the BLS Internet facility or are testing such collection (3):

* Annual Refiling Survey (part of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

* Current Employment Statistics Survey

* International Price Program

* Multiple Worksite Report Survey (part of the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

* National Compensation Survey

* Occupational Employment Statistics Program

* Producer Price Index

* Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses

Solicitation for Internet reporting varies from trying to entice reporters one at a time to become Internet reporters to giving all employers in the program the option of reporting on the Internet. This article focuses on two surveys that use different approaches--the Current Employment Statistics Survey (CES) and the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). While both of these surveys have had employers reporting via the Internet for several years, and therefore have a significant body of experience, they provide contrasts as to type of survey and approach to solicitation. In 1996, the CES became the first BLS program to collect data via the Internet and solicits employers one at a time. The so., which began Internet collection in 2003, allows all respondents to use the Internet if desired and has the greatest number of Internet responses among all DES programs.

The CES and so. programs

CES. The CES is a monthly survey of employment, payroll, and hours. The data collected are used to produce the establishment employment statistics contained in the Employment Situation release, a major economic indicator. (4) The sample of 400,000 business establishments provides data that are published after only 2 1/2 weeks of collection. Detailed estimates of employment by industry, State, and area, average hourly earnings, and average weekly hours are published. Respondents are queried about seven basic items:

* All employees

* All employees payroll and commissions

* All employee hours (including overtime hours)

* Gross monthly earnings

* Production/nonsupervisory hours