IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v39y1986i2p241-250.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the Accuracy of BLS Local Unemployment Rates: A Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Terry F. Buss

Abstract

The accuracy of local unemployment rates published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been questioned because of their heavy reliance on secondary data sources. It has often been suggested that this criticism could be tested if the BLS's survey methodology for determining national rates were applied to local labor markets. This study employs that methodology more rigorously than previous studies to estimate unemployment in the Youngstown/Warren SMSA in June 1984. When the resulting estimates are compared with those obtained using the BLS's local survey methodology, it is found that the BLS estimates significantly understate unemployment. The author offers suggestions for improving BLS local-level statistical programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Terry F. Buss, 1986. "Assessing the Accuracy of BLS Local Unemployment Rates: A Case Study," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 39(2), pages 241-250, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:39:y:1986:i:2:p:241-250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ilr.sagepub.com/content/39/2/241.abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:39:y:1986:i:2:p:241-250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.