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Employment Cost Index

Employment Cost Index (ECI) Response Rates

The National Compensation Survey (NCS) relies on the participation of establishments across the nation to provide wage and benefits data. Data collected through the survey is used to calculate the Employment Cost Index (ECI), Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC), and Benefits publication. A survey response rate represents the percentage of the sample that responds to or participates in a survey.

Calculating Response Rates

A response rate is typically calculated as

Response rate equals total number of units responding divided by the total number of units eligible  

The ECI provides three response rates with slight differences in defining the units eligible for the calculation. These formulas will count responding establishments based on their assigned status code.

Usable establishments occur when the respondent provides wage and/or benefit data for at least one sampled job. Vacant establishments occur when all sampled jobs temporarily do not have any active employees as of the reference period (the pay period including the 12th of the reference month). Strike establishments occur when all sampled jobs are temporarily on strike as of the reference period. Temporary nonresponse establishments occur when the respondent will not provide wages and/or any benefit data for any sampled job on a temporary basis. Refusal establishments occur when the respondent will not provide data for any sampled job and future cooperation is not anticipated.

Survey response rate

Numerator = total number of establishments available for estimation that are coded usable, vacant, or strike

Denominator = total number of establishments available for estimation that are coded usable, vacant, strike, refusals for which initiation schedule was usable, refusals for which initiation schedule was not usable, or temporary nonresponse

Usable rate at initiation

Initiations correspond to establishment initiations scheduled for collection during the quarter.

Numerator = total number of establishments coded usable, vacant, or strike

Denominator = total number of establishments coded usable, vacant, strike, refusal, or temporary nonresponse

Usable rate at update

Updates correspond to index updates for all establishments being updated, whether or not they are currently used in estimation

Numerator = total number of establishments coded usable, vacant, or strike

Denominator = total number of establishments coded usable, vacant, strike, refusal, or temporary nonresponse

Accessing response rates

Response rates are added to the ECI database with every release in January, April, July, and October.

To access the response rates using the One Screen tool, the following selections should be made:

(1) Civilian workers; (2) Total Compensation; (3) All occupations; (4) All industries; (5) All workers; (6) United States (National); (7) Survey response rate, Usable rate, initiations, and/or Usable rate, updates; and (8) Not seasonally adjusted. 

The series report tool can also be used to access response rate data by inserting the series IDs for the response rates:

Survey response rate:                     CIU1010000000000S

Usable rate at initiation:                  CIU1010000000000R

Usable rate at update:                    CIU1010000000000P

More information

The Office of Survey Methods Research provides response rates for all surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Additional information about the ECI and the estimates produced can be found in the Handbook of Methods.