Measuring Unemployment in the Nineties

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 58, Heft 2, S. 277-294

Abstract

The Current Population Survey (CPS), the US government survey from which the unemployment rate is calculated each month, recently underwent a major redesign, culminating in a revised questionnaire & automated data collection procedures that became operational at the beginning of 1994. Traced here is the research process that produced the revised questionnaire, noting some examples of the changes made & pointing to probable changes in the data as indicated by an overlap sample. It is concluded that although changes in the data collection procedure for an important government time series such as that produced by the CPS could cause difficulties, the costs of standing still & the risk that the data from a static survey will increasingly lose their relevance outweigh the costs of change. 3 Tables, 15 References. AA