Improving Response Rates for the 2007 Census of Government Employment

• Activity Number: 206
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 3, 2009 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Government Statistics
• Author(s): Kerstin K. Edwards*+ and Kenneth L. Long and Grace O'Neill and Carma Hogue
• Companies: U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau and Energy Information Administration and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: Response rates ; survey methods ; establishment surveys ; non-response

Abstract

In March 2007 the U.S. Census Bureau conducted the 2007 Census of Government Employment, a voluntary census of state and local governments measuring public civilian employment and payroll. The following methods were used in an effort to bolster response rates: training in non-response follow-up methods, targeted contact with chronic non-respondents prior to mail-out, mail-out of a reminder letter to non-respondents one month after the initial mail-out, substantial increase in site visits to chronic or large non-responding governments, and use of the National Processing Center's telephone center to conduct non-response follow-up calls. The unit response rate improved from 76.5 percent in 2002 to 89.3 percent in 2007.