Data Collection in the U.S. BLS’ CES Survey

New Frontiers for Data Collection

October 31 – November 2, 2012Geneva, Switzerland

Ken Robertson, Assistant CommissionerBureau of Labor Statistics

Outline

Current Employment Statistics (CES) Survey Background

A History of Data Collection in CES

Current CES Data Collection

CES Background

Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) CES survey is also known as the payroll or the establishment survey.

Each month the CES program surveys approximately 141,000 businesses representing 486,000 individual worksites.

Collection days before first release of the data varies each month, ranging from 10-16 days.

About 25% of the non-certainty businesses are rotated out-of-sample each year

Major Uses of CES Data Economic indicator – one of the earliest

available each month These data are used to publish 4 news

releases each month: 2 national, and 2 sub-national Publish employment, hours, and earnings

by industry and geography Input to other economic series

History of CES Data Collection

1915 – 1983 Data were collected almost exclusively by

Mail in a decentralized environment Collection rates were typically between

40%-50% for 1st release of the data, 90% for the final

A mail shuttle form was utilized

Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing

1984: CES CATI – testing started

1987: Large-scale CATI test, involved 11 States, lasted 7 years, and ended with a test size of 5,500 cases

1995: Collecting about 10,000 cases per month via CATI

Touchtone Data Entry

1987: CES began to experiment with TDE as a way to lower collection costs compared to CATI – but to retain a higher response rate than achieved by mail

Voice Recognition

1989 – CES briefly explored voice recognition as a data collection alternative

Electronic Data Interchange

1995 – the BLS began to hear from larger employers, who were participating in multiple BLS surveys, that they wanted some way to reduce their cost of participation

Developed the EDI Center to work with these large multi-site businesses

FAX

1995: BLS developed FAX collection for medium size firms.

Used for collection where CATI is too burdensome, but business is not large enough for EDI

One Point TDE

1996: BLS developed the One-Point TDE system to take over the TDE responsibility for two states. Up to this point each state had independently maintained their own TDE system and helpdesk.

By 2004 all states transferred their TDE operations to the One Point TDE

Web

1996: tested Web-based collection system 1998: decided to support Web collection. 2004 - CES started using the Internet Data

Collection Facility (IDCF), a centralized service utilized for multiple BLS surveys

WEB-LITE 2004: CES decided to try a streamlined

version of Web-based collection.

E-Mail & Web-FTP

2006 – tested email collection; utilized embedded HTML that allowed respondent to access BLS website

Problems encountered because of different HTML rendering standards employed by different email clients

Web-FTP 2007: BLS began utilizing a spreadsheet data

collection form that the State of West Virginia had developed for medium sized firms

Offered to respondents who have at least 5 worksites but less than 100

A New Form

2011: Started a field test of a major redesign to the form, which had not changed significantly from the 1-page grid design since 1939

New form is a 4-page form, printed on 11” X 17”, folded to produce four 8½” X 11” pages

Collection Form: 1915-2012

New Form - OutsideFront-introduction Back-Thank You

New Form - InsideLeft -Instructions Right-Data

History of major innovations in CES data

collection

1915 – 1983: Mail 1984: CATI 1987: Touchtone Data Entry (TDE) 1989: Voice-Recognition 1995: EDI, FAX 1996: One-Point TDE, WEB 2004: Web-Lite, IDCF 2006: Email 2007: WebFTP 2011: New Form

Current CES Data Collection

Current Methods Costs Collection Rates

CES Methods: Data Collection

Current CES sample is collected through a variety of methods: CATI, Fax, TDE, Web, EDI, WebFTP

CATI yields highest response rates but is the most expensive

Providing options helps sustain response rates in a voluntary survey

Collection modes have evolved; away from mail to automated methods

CES Collection CES Collection EnvironmentEnvironment

Challenging, especially for 1st preliminary: CES has 10-16 days for collection

Reference period is the pay period including the 12th

Collection begins as early as the 13th of the reference month, continues until 6:00 pm Monday, for the Employment Situation release, typically the first Friday of the month some firms do not have payroll available until after

1st preliminary cut-off

AE Collection Rates: 1st and 3rd Closings,

January 2003 to Present

CES Collection Over TimeCES Collection Over Time

Collection Mode

1915 1993 2004 2011

Mail 100% 86% 3% 0%

CATI 0 4 20 18

TDE 0 8 27 4

EDI 0 0 30 45

FAX 0 0 14 5

WEB 0 0 1 25

Other 0 2 5 3

Table 1. Distribution of CES sample by collection mode over time

CES Collection Over TimeCES Collection Over Time

Mode Collection rates at first

release

On-going collection

cost, per unit

CATI 90.8% $10.38

TDE 84.6% $2.88

EDI 59.2% $0.50

FAX 85.8% $5.86

WEB 78.5% $2.40

Other Varies Varies

Table 2. Collection rates and costs by mode, 2011 Average

Concluding RemarksConcluding Remarks

CES data collection is a very large monthly operation with critical deadlines leading to multiple news releases each month

Operations are managed centrally, and conducted in 4 Data Collection Centers, and an Electronic Data Interchange Center

Data from about 141,000 businesses representing 486,000 establishments are collected each month using various modes of collection

Transition from decentralized operations in over 50 states has resulted in substantial efficiencies

Concluding RemarksConcluding Remarks

Managing multi-modal operations is very challenging must have highly qualified and motivated

professional staff to pay attention to all the moving parts

must fix problems quickly Must monitor distribution among modes closely

to maximize response with available funding

Must continue to innovate and take advantage of new technologies – where it makes sense To maintain high collection rates To take advantage of new efficiencies

Contact Information

Ken RobertsonAssistant Commissioner

Industry Employment Statistics

202-691-5440Robertson.Ken@bls.gov