On Weight Smoothing in the Current Employment Statistics Survey

• Activity Number: 467
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Michael Sverchkov*+ and Julie Gershunskaya
• Companies: Bureau of Labor Statistics and BLS
• Keywords: sampling weights ; extreme observations ; business survey ; stratum jumper

Abstract

The sampling weight in CES is determined at the time of sample selection. It depends on a unit's State, industry, and size class. However, the population of businesses is highly dynamic. Establishments constantly grow or contract; sometimes they also change their industrial classification or geographical location. Even the number of population units is not fixed but continuously changes over time. A unit may change its size class at the time of estimation or the content of the original stratum may change. Under such circumstances, application of the original survey weights may increase volatility of survey estimates. In this paper we investigate if the survey estimates can be improved by adjusting the original weights.