472 – Paradata and Responsive Survey Design
Evaluating the Impact of the Loss of Telephone Follow-Up (TFU) Operations on the Service Monthly and Annual Sample Maintenance (SMASM) Quarterly Birth Sampling
Micah Tyler
US Census Bureau
The Business and Professional Classification Report (SQ-Class) is a survey whose data is used in quarterly sample maintenance operations for a subset of current business surveys at the Census Bureau. These quarterly sample maintenance operations supplement the current business surveys with business births and help ensure proper industry classification in the Economic Census. Companies selected into sample for the SQ-Class receive a form that requests two months of sales or receipts data, as well as industry classification and company structure information. This data is used to conduct a second round of sampling, with selects being added to their appropriate current business survey sample(s). Over the years, the amount of money required to conduct the SQ-Class has increased steadily, with TFU operations cited as one of the costliest aspects. To control cost, the idea of removing TFU while compensating for the loss of additional response data by increasing the total sample size was proposed. This paper outlines the research conducted to assess both the feasibility of increasing the sample size, and the impact that a loss of TFU operations would have on SMASM’s quarterly birth sampling.