Are Labor Market Indicators Telling the Truth? Role of Measurement Error in the U.S. Current Population Survey

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ippei Shibata
2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. L Elsby ◽  
Ryan Michaels ◽  
Gary Solon

A dominant trend in recent modeling of labor market fluctuations is to treat unemployment inflows as acyclical. This trend has been encouraged by recent influential papers that stress the role of longer unemployment spells, rather than more unemployment spells, in accounting for recessionary unemployment. After reviewing an empirical literature going back several decades, we apply a convenient log change decomposition to Current Population Survey data to characterize rising unemployment in each postwar recession. We conclude that a complete understanding of cyclical unemployment requires an explanation of countercyclical inflow rates, especially for job losers (layoffs), as well as procyclical outflow rates. (JEL E24, E32)


ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 792-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Funkhouser ◽  
Stephen J. Trejo

Using data from special supplements to the Current Population Survey (CPS), the authors track the education and hourly earnings of recent male immigrants to the United States. In terms of these measures of labor market skills, the CPS data suggest that immigrants who came in the late 1980s were more skilled than those who arrived earlier in the decade. This pattern represents a break from the steady decline in immigrant skill levels observed in 1940–80 Census data. Despite the encouraging trend over the 1980s, however, the average skills of recent immigrants remain low by historical standards.


Author(s):  
Jan E. Leighley ◽  
Jonathan Nagler

This chapter uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey to provide an extensive description and discussion of aggregate and demographic group-specific turnout rates since 1972, focusing on education, income, race, ethnicity, age, gender, and marital status. Among the findings is that voter turnout in presidential elections since 1972 has not declined systematically. Instead, it has been slightly higher in some elections, and slightly lower in other elections. Second, the relationships among income, education, and voter turnout are quite strong: the probability of a highly educated or wealthy individual casting a ballot is much, much higher than the probability of a less-educated or poorer individual casting a ballot. Third, these differences in turnout have been remarkably stable over this thirty-six-year period. Fourth, there is less stability in turnout patterns by age, gender, and ethnicity since 1972 compared to those of education and income.


ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth A. Swinnerton ◽  
Howard Wial

Using Current Population Survey data, the authors examine changes in job stability during the 1980s. For consecutive four-year periods during 1979–91, they present estimates of four-year retention rates for workers with varying levels of employer-specific seniority. Retention rates of low-seniority workers rose between 1979–83 and 1983–87 but fell between 1983–87 and 1987–91. Retention rates for 1987–91 were typically lower than those for 1979–83, suggesting a secular decline in job stability during the 1980s.


Author(s):  
Roberto B. Pinheiro ◽  
Alan Dizioli

This Commentary discusses how the presence of foreign-born workers in a local labor market affects the decisions of native-born workers to leave the labor force or move to another state. We analyze short panels obtained through the Current Population Survey and find that, in the short run, less-educated native-born workers react to a larger stock of foreign-born workers by either moving to a different state or dropping out of the labor force. In terms of magnitude, the effect is small but not insignificant.


ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-169
Author(s):  
Christopher Ferrall

This study, using data from the Professional, Administrative, Technical, and Clerical Pay Survey and the Current Population Survey, examines how the assignment of responsibility within firms affected the structure of wages of U.S. engineers between 1961 and 1986. Patterns of wage dispersion in this sample mirrored patterns found in broader segments of the labor market during the same period. In engineering, wage dispersion within levels of responsibility fell steadily between 1976 and 1986, while wage dispersion between levels rose. At the same time, engineering jobs began to migrate to lower levels within firms. The author explains the trends in wages and job assignments as responses to changes in the supply of and demand for engineers, within the framework of hierarchy models of responsibility.


1996 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne E Polivka

The Current Population Survey (CPS), a national survey of 50,000 households, is a major source of information about the American labor market. In January 1994, the CPS underwent a major redesign both in the wording of the questionnaire and the methodology used to collect the data. This article reviews the motivation for the redesign, compares several key CPS estimates before and after the implementation of the new survey, and explains some of the new data collected in the redesigned CPS.


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