Explanatory Notes and Estimates of Error - United States Bureau of Labor Statistics report - Statistical Data Included

Employment and Earnings, June, 1999

COMPARABILITY OF HOUSEHOLD DATA WITH OTHER SERIES

Unemployment insurance data. The unemployed total from the household survey includes all persons who did not have a job during the reference week, were currently available for a job, and were looking for work or were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off, whether or not they were eligible for unemployment insurance. Figures on unemployment insurance claims, prepared by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, exclude, in addition to otherwise ineligible persons who do not file claims for benefits, persons who have exhausted their benefit rights, new workers who have not earned rights to unemployment insurance, and persons losing jobs not covered by unemployment insurance systems (some workers in agriculture, domestic services, and religious organizations, and self-employed and unpaid family workers).

In addition, the qualifications for drawing unemployment compensation differ from the definition of unemployment used in the household survey. For example, persons with a job but not at work and persons working only a few hours during the week are sometimes eligible for unemployment compensation but are classified as employed rather than unemployed in the household survey.

For an examination of the similarities and differences between State insured unemployment and total unemployment, see "Measuring Total and State Insured Unemployment" by Gloria P. Green in the June 1971 issue of the Monthly Labor Review.

Agricultural employment estimates of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The principal differences in coverage are the inclusion of persons under 16 in the National Agricultural Statistics Service series and the treatment of dual jobholders, who are counted more than once if they work on more than one farm during the reporting period. There are also wide differences in sampling techniques and data collecting and estimating methods, which cannot be readily measured in terms of their impact on differences in the levels and trends of the two series.

COMPARABILITY OF PAYROLL EMPLOYMENT DATA WITH OTHER SERIES

Statistics on manufacturers and business, Bureau of the Census. BLS establishment statistics on employment differ from employment counts derived by the Bureau of the Census from its censuses or sample surveys of manufacturing and business establishments. The major reasons for noncomparability are different treatment of business units considered parts of an establishment, such as central administrative offices and auxiliary units; the industrial classification of establishments; and different reporting patterns by multiunit companies. There are also differences in the scope of the industries covered, e.g., the Census of Business excludes professional services, public utilities, and financial establishments, whereas these are included in the BLS statistics.

County Business Patterns, Bureau of the Census. Data in County Business Patterns (CBP) differ from BLS establishment statistics in the treatment of central administrative offices and auxiliary units. Differences may also arise because of industrial classification and reporting practices. In addition, CBP excludes interstate railroads and most of government, and coverage is incomplete for some of the nonprofit agencies.