Online Program

Business Response Survey to the Coronavirus Pandemic (310016)

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; data collection; electronic reporting; establishment; new data

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has developed new data on how U.S. businesses changed their operations and employment since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic through September 2020. This information, in combination with data collected by other current BLS surveys, will aid in understanding how businesses responded during the pandemic. Other BLS statistics collected and published during the pandemic provide indications of changes in employment, wages, job openings and terminations, employer-provided benefits, and safety and health. The new data provides additional insights by asking employers directly what they experienced as a result of the pandemic and how they responded. BLS released the first round of BRS data in December 2020 and has plans to release a second round of BRS data in 2021. Additionally, BLS is currently developing a second establishment survey on business response to these later stages of the coronavirus, which will be fielded in August 2021.

This presentation will cover this new survey development, sampling methods, and estimation procedures along with the data results and data linking projects to create new data products from BRS data including linking BRS with wages and CDC essential industry classifications. It will also cover future plans for additional data publication of additional levels of geography/industry/size detail. BLS is also seeking to field a second survey in late summer 2021 asking employers questions about business response at this stage of the pandemic and pandemic recovery.