Civil Rights Community Urges Congress to Protect the Current Population Survey
View a PDF of the letter here.
September 24, 2024
The Honorable Patty Murray
Chair
Senate Appropriations Committee
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Susan Collins
Vice Chair
Senate Appropriations Committee
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Tom Cole
Chairman
House Appropriations Committee
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
House Appropriations Committee
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chair Murray, Vice Chair Collins, Chairman Cole, and Ranking Member DeLauro:
We, the undersigned, represent 141 civil society organizations and businesses alongside two former Commissioners, who led the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for a combined eight years: four under President Barack Obama, two under President Donald Trump, and two under President Joseph Biden. We write to alert you to an emergent threat to the quality of a critical national economic indicator: the Current Population Survey (CPS). We all rely on this data and are deeply concerned about its future, given its influence on global financial markets and macroeconomic
policymaking. Despite its invaluable data, including the monthly unemployment rate, the CPS is under threat of cuts to its sample size due to inadequate resources. To preserve the accuracy and integrity of the monthly unemployment rate and associated measures of labor market activity, as well as enact overdue steps to modernize its data collection, we strongly urge you to provide an additional $20.6 million above FY 2024 levels for the CPS in any final fiscal year 2025 (FY25) appropriations or continuing resolution for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS-Ed).
Following two years of flat funding, BLS has announced plans to survey fewer households for each month’s CPS starting in January 2025. This follows more than a decade of enacting alternative costsaving measures such as reducing the number of in-person visits to households, non-response followup, field training, and more. Since collecting labor market information from fewer people will endanger the reliability of metrics such as national unemployment and labor force participation, this step is a last resort that has been delayed for as long as possible by exhausting all other available means.
The rise in operating costs stems from two factors. First, the cost of in-person data collection has steadily risen over the past decade. This stems from increased labor costs for data collectors, in addition to the need to contact households repeatedly to encourage their participation. The participation rate in the CPS has been steadily falling, and first fell below 90 percent in December 2012. It dropped precipitously in 2020 and was 67 and 71 percent in the past two years, respectively.
Second, and more subtle, costs have increased due to a lack of funding for a reformed and modernized CPS. A decade ago, BLS and the Census Bureau began work to develop new, Internetbased ways to collect data. As described in this recent presentation to the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee, the timeline for modernization can be carried out in just three years contingent on funding. However, for several decades the U.S. has failed to allocate the resources required to implement these modernizing efforts. After adjusting for inflation, overall BLS funding has fallen by more than 20 percent from a high in 2010 and more than 13 percent since the sample size became approximately 60,000 households in 2001.
Reducing the CPS sample size will make its statistics less reliable. Not only will uncertainty surrounding the top-line statistics edge up, as noted in a statement from the American Economic Association, but it will also hinder accurate analysis of states and local areas and subpopulations, including teenagers, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, the self-employed, people who identify as Asian, Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, and Black or African Americans. Furthermore, it would inhibit the analysis of the intersections of these demographics by geography and sex. Already, disaggregated data by state cannot be produced for some racial and ethnic groups. Should cuts to the CPS sample size be enacted, there simply will not be sufficient representation in the sample to trust timely disaggregated findings and information on these demographic groups likely will disappear entirely from the monthly Employment Situation report. And finally, a smaller sample also makes the system less resilient. It raises the risk that BLS will be forced to delay or miss a monthly release because of a major disruption such as extreme weather or another pandemic – moments when accurate, localized labor market information is particularly critical.
Providing BLS with $718.6 million – $650.6 million in congressional appropriations (an additional $20.6 million above FY 2024 levels) and $68 million which may be expended from the Employment Security Administration account in the Unemployment Trust Fund for FY 2025 – would prevent cuts to the CPS sample size this year, and with continued investment for the following two fiscal years, will save the CPS from further sample erosion. The BLS-Census Bureau plan for a new, modern CPS could be fully implemented in as little as three years and would prevent future cuts to the sample as survey response rates to phone and in-person survey techniques continue to trend downward. The individual components of that funding are broken out as follows:
- Congress can provide the BLS Division of Employment and Unemployment Statistics with $12 million dollars in FY2025—an additional $4.4 million above the President’s request. This increase to annual funding would support the current operations of the CPS.
- Second, and most importantly, Congress can commit to a multi-year modernization initiative (as proposed in the Administration’s FY2024 budget) to prepare the CPS for success in the 21st Century with an initial appropriation of $15 million in FY2025 in addition to the above request.
We join together and write today because we know that the immediate problems facing CPS are real, urgent, and can be readily solved with some stop-gap funding. In addition, we know that BLS and Census cannot achieve a heathier CPS without development funding for a modernized labor market survey over the next few years. We urge Congress, with your leadership, to find a bipartisan solution to shore up the CPS now and support its modernization, thereby assuring private and public policymakers that they can confidently base decisions on the invaluable data contained in that survey now and into the future.
Respectfully,
Erica L. Groshen, Ph. D
14th Commissioner of Labor Statistics
Wiliam Beach, D. Phil.
15th Commissioner of Labor Statistics
Friends of BLS
A New Hope Consulting – Oregon
Alabama Arise – Alabama
Alaska Public Research Interest Group – Alaska
American Association of University Women
American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees
American Institute for Boys and Men
American Sociological Association
American Statistical Association
Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote)
Associated General Contractors of America
Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)
Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE)
Association of Population Centers
Association of Public Data Users
Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN)
Balcony View Consulting, LLC
Better Life Lab at New America
Brookings Institution
Caring Across Generations
Center for American Progress
Center for Economic and Policy Research
Center for NYC Affairs at The New School – New York
Center for Parental Leave Leadership
Center for Regional Economic Research, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga – Tennessee
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Center on Policy Initiatives- California
Central American Resource Center – CARECEN – Washington DC
Children’s Institute – Oregon
Coalition on Human Needs
Colorado Fiscal Institute – Colorado
Community Service Society of New – York New York
Connecticut Voices for Children – Connecticut
Consortium of Social Science Associations
Council for Community and Economic Research
Council for Professional Recognition
Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics
Decision Demographics, LLC
Economic Policy Institute
Economic Progress Institute – Rhode Island
Equal Rights Advocates & Equal Pay Today
ERA Coalition
Family Values @ Work
First Focus Campaign for Children
Florida Policy Institute – Florida
FPWA – New York
Grand Canyon Institute – Arizona
Greenhouse Institute
Harvard University
Haver Analytics
Hawaii Children’s Action Network – Hawaii
Hilltop Economics LLC
Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy – Idaho
Immigration Research Initiative – New York
Impact Fund
Indeed
Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute – Indiana
Industry Studies Association
Insights Into Comp, LLC
Institute for Policy Studies, Poverty Project
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
IPUMS
Jewish Women International
Justice for Migrant Women
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy – Kentucky
Kentucky Voices for Health – Kentucky
Kids Forward – Wisconsin
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)
Legal Aid at Work – California
Legal Momentum, The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund
MacroPolicy Perspectives LLC
MACS 2030 – Minnesotans for the American Community Survey and 2030 Census – Minnesota
Main Street Alliance
Maine Center for Economic Policy – Maine
Maui Economic Opportunity, Inc. – Hawaii
Minnesota Budget Project – Minnesota
MomsRising
Motio Research
Movement Advancement Project
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
National Association for Business Economics (NABE)
National Association for Family Child Care
National Black Worker Center
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Committee on Pay Equity
National Community Action Partnership
National Education Association
National Employment Law Project
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Urban League
National Women’s Law Center
NC Budget & Tax Center – North Carolina
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
New Jersey Policy Perspective – New Jersey
New Mexico Voices for Children – New Mexico
Noel Collective, LLC – Maryland
North Star Policy Action – Minnesota
North Yard Analytics LLC
Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness Foundation – Oklahoma
OpenSky Policy Institute – Nebraska
Opportunity@Work
Oregon Center for Public Policy – Oregon
Oxfam America
PHI
Policy Matters Ohio – Ohio
Population Association of America
Population Reference Bureau (PRB)
PowHer New York – New York
Project on Government Oversight
Regionomics LLC – Ohio
Research 2 Impact
Rhode Island KIDS COUNT – Rhode Island
RuralOrganizing.org
South Carolina Program for Infant/Toddler Care – South Carolina
SRR Consulting
Start Early
Storied Analytics, LLC
The Budget Lab at Yale
The Burning Glass Institute
The Consortium of Social Science Associations
The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
The Stat Guy LLC – Colorado
The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund – (TLDEF)
Twin Cities Research Group – Minnesota
UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute
Union for Reform Judaism
VOICES for Alabama’s Children – Alabama
Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Washington State Budget and Policy Center – Washington
West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy – West Virginia
Whitman-Walker Institute
Women Employed – Illinois
Working Partnerships USA California
Workplace Justice Project Louisiana
Young Invincibles – Both state and national
YWCA USA
Cc
The Honorable Tammy Baldwin
Chair, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
The Honorable Shelley Capito
Ranking Member, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
The Honorable Robert Aderholt
Ranking Member, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies