The statistics in this periodical are compiled from three major sources: (1) Household interviews, (2) reports from employers, and (3) administrative statistics of unemployment insurance systems.

Data based on household interviews are obtained from a sample survey of the population 16 years of age and over. The survey is conducted each month by the Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics and provides comprehensive data on the labor force, the employed and the unemployed, including such characteristics as age, sex, color, marital status, occupations, hours of work, and duration of unemployment. The survey also provides data on the characteristics and past work experience of those not in the labor force. The information is collected by trained interviewers from a sample of about 47,000 households, representing 461 areas in 923 counties and independent cities, with coverage in 50 States and the District of Columbia. The data collected are based on the activity or status reported for the calendar week including the 12th of the month.

Data based on establishment records are compiled each month from mail questionnaires by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in cooperation with State agencies. The establishment surveys are designed to provide detailed industry information on nonagricultural wage and salary employment, average weekly hours, average hourly and weekly earnings, and labor turnover for the Nation, States, and metropolitan areas. The employment, hours, and earnings series are based on payroll reports from a sample of establishments employing about 30 million nonagricultural wage and salary workers. The data relate to all workers, full- or part-time, who received pay during the payroll period which includes the 12th of the month. Based on a somewhat smaller sample, labor turnover data relate to actions occurring during the entire month.

Data based on administrative records of unemployment insurance systems furnish a complete count of insured unemployment among the three-fourths of the Nation's labor force covered by unemployment insurance programs. Weekly reports, by State, are issued on the number of initial claims, the volume, and rate of insured unemployment under State unemployment insurance programs, and the volume under programs of unemployment compensation for Federal employees, ex-servicemen, and railroad workers. These statistics are published by the Manpower Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, in "Unemployment Insurance Claims."

RELATION BETWEEN THE HOUSEHOLD AND ESTABLISHMENT SERIES

The household and establishment data supplement one another, each providing significant types of information that the other cannot suitably supply. Population characteristics, for example, are readily obtained only from the household survey

whereas detailed industrial classifications can be reliably derived only from establishment reports.

Data from these two sources differ from each other because of differences in definition and coverage, sources of information, methods of collection, and estimating procedures. Sampling variability and response errors are additional reasons for discrepancies. The major factors which have a differential effect on levels and trends of the two series are as follows:

Employment

Coverage. The household survey definition of employment comprises wage and salary workers (including domestics and other private household workers), self-employed persons, and unpaid workers who worked 15 hours or more during the survey week in family-operated enterprises. Employment in both agricultural and nonagricultural industries is included. The payroll survey covers only wage and salary employees on the payrolls of nonagricultural establishments.

Multiple jobholding. The household approach provides information on the work status of the population without duplication since each person is classified as employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force. Employed persons holding more than one job are counted only once and are classified according to the job at which they worked the greatest number of hours during the survey week. In the figures based on establishment records, persons who worked in more than one establishment during the reporting period are counted each time their names appear on payrolls.

Unpaid absences from jobs. The household survey includes among the employed all persons who had jobs but were not at work during the survey week-that is, were not working but had jobs from which they were temporarily absent because of illness, bad weather, vacation, labor-management dispute, or because they were taking time off for various other reasons, even if they were not paid by their employers for the time off. In the figures based on payroll reports, persons on leave paid for by the company are included, but not those on leave without pay for the entire payroll period.

For a comprehensive discussion of the differences between household and establishment survey employment data, see Gloria P. Green's article "Comparing Employment Estimates from Household and Payroll Surveys," Monthly Labor Review, December 1969. Reprints of this article are available upon request from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Hours of work

The household survey measures hours actually worked whereas the payroll survey measures hours paid for by