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

A Simplified Approach to Administrative Record Linkage in the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages

Justin J. McIllece and Vinod Kapani

Abstract

In the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, quarterly establishment records are linked longitudinally by a software-based logistic regression system that assigns linkage probabilities to potential establishment matches. Each field in the administrative record is given a weight according to its non-missing rate, and records are linked if their estimated linkage probability exceeds a minimum threshold. In this paper, we consider a simplified matching alternative that relies on the principal data fields related to the administrative definitions of establishment linkage. A linkage system based on critical matching criteria, such as location and administrative business information, is constructed. The results of the alternative record linkage approach are compared to those generated from the logistic regression software.