March 15, 2004

Charting the Recovery

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released a paper examining the reasons for the differences in the jobs data in the federal government's monthly Household Survey and Employer Survey.

Both the payroll and household surveys are needed for a complete picture of the labor market. The payroll survey provides a highly reliable gauge of monthly change in nonfarm wage and salary employment. The survey has a large probability sample, and is benchmarked annually to a universe count of jobs derived from the unemployment insurance tax system. The payroll survey offers industry and geographic information at very detailed levels. The household survey provides a broader picture of employment including agriculture and the self employed, as well as detailed information on the demographic composition of the employed and the unemployed.