U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Bureau of Labor Statistics > Office of Survey Methods Research > Publications > Browse Research Papers

Relationship Between Household Nonresponse, Demographics, and Unemployment Rate in the Current Population Survey

John S. Dixon

Abstract

Previous studies have found that nonresponse varies for different demographic characteristics of households. The impact of nonresponse on estimates from Federal household surveys (e.g.; The Current Population Survey) will be examined by comparing estimates from one period depending on response or nonresponse from an adjacent period. This technique is a form of "gross flow", which has been used to study potential bias in survey estimates in other studies. The differences in estimates will be examined relative to household characteristics which have been found to differ in nonresponse. This will provide a measure of the degree of bias due to nonresponse as well as a measure of differential bias for subgroups of the populations. Some of the household characteristics of interest include ownership status, rural/urban environment, and demographic characteristics of the household.