Occupational Requirements Survey Sample Design Evaluation

• Activity Number: 399
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Gwyn Ferguson*+ and Erin McNulty and Chester Ponikowski
• Companies: BLS and Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Keywords: survey design ; occupational data ; integrated surveys ; survey cost

Abstract

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is working with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to carry out a series of tests to determine the feasibility of using the National Compensation Survey (NCS) platform to accurately and reliably capture data that are relevant to the SSA's disability program. The proposed new Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS) is envisioned to be an establishment survey that collects information on the vocational preparation and the cognitive and physical requirements of occupations in the U.S. economy as well as the environmental conditions in which those occupations are performed. This paper builds on the evaluation that was presented at the 2013 Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Research Conference that described the advantages and disadvantages of integrating the sample design of ORS with the sample design of NCS. This paper presents an analysis of the sample design options that were considered for this proposed new survey and describes the sample design being used in the pre-production test for ORS. It also describes the design issues that need to be resolved before full survey implementation.