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.

Redesigned Current Population Survey Raking

Edwin L. Robison and Martha Duff

Abstract

Redesigned weighting for the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) was implemented January 2003. New national and state coverage steps were added. A reconfigured second-stage iterative proportional fitting process forces weighted data to agree with independently derived population controls. A modified composite weighting procedure is another iterative process that forces weighted data to match sets of labor force controls generated with specialized composite formulas. The effect of each step and interactions among steps is analyzed. Particular emphasis is placed on the new state coverage step and the reconfigured second-stage state step. The steps afford much more detailed population control for states than prior procedures and dramatically stabilize monthly estimates for demographic subgroups within states.