Full Citation
Title: By the Numbers: Making the Current Population Survey Work for You
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2011
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Abstract: During the recent labor market downturn, there has been a surge in the number of people who have been unemployed for a long period of time. For the fourth quarter of 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that a little more than 11 percent of those who were unemployed indicated that they had been looking for work for two years or more. The BLS and the Census Bureau decided, effective January 2011, to make changes to the Current Population Survey (CPS) to allow respondents to report unemployment durations up to five years. This upper boundary was selected to allow the Obama administration and policy analysts the ability to provide a more accurate analysis of people who have been unemployed for a longer period of time.1 The CPS is considered to be one of the longest stand- ing national surveys used for labor and socioeconomic research. While the primary purpose of the CPS is to track unemployment, over the years its scope and coverage has expanded. It is important as government information specialists to understand the historical context and evolu- tion of the survey as well as some of the ways that the data is being published and made accessible to our users.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Woods, Steven
Publisher: DttP: Documents to the People
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS
Topics: Methodology and Data Collection
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