Conceived in the 1930s to meet the increased needs for unemployment statistics, the Current Population Survey (CPS) has been conducted in its present form since 1948, making it one of the oldest and most recognized surveys in the nation. Sponsored jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it is a primary source of labor force statistics for the U.S population, producing a key Principal Federal economic indicator. Additionally, the data are used to inform policymakers on the social and economic well-being of the nation and its people by adding a set of supplemental questions to the monthly basic CPS questions. A primary example of these supplements is the Annual Social and Economic Supplement which provides income, poverty, and health insurance statistics.

The CPS program leadership from the Census Bureau and BLS have agreed that modernization is needed to ensure the sustainability of the CPS. The Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics have started the early stages of a multi-year effort to improve and modernize the operations of CPS. One of the largest efforts of this process is the introduction of an Internet self-response mode by 2027.

Over the years CPS has made changes to measure the ever-changing population and labor force characteristics of the US and implemented the latest in survey methodology practices.  The last major change to the CPS was in the early 1990s when it went from paper data collection to computer assisted interviewing.

The response rates for all household surveys, including CPS, have been steadily declining for many years. Ten years ago, CPS regularly achieved response rates in the high 80 percentile. However, that is no longer true in the current environment. Issues like privacy concerns, challenges contacting respondents in cellphone only households, and respondents’ availability when contact is made have all contributed to the decline¹. By adding a new Internet self-response mode, it is anticipated that response rates can be increased or at the very least stabilized.

Declines in response rates are not uniquely a United States issue.  International labor surveys have all seen a gradual decrease in participation rates. The quarterly United Kingdom Labour Force Survey (LS) has seen an even more drastic decrease in response rates over the same ten years when compared to CPS. 

Even the mandatory Labour Force Survey (LFS) administered by the Canadian govenment was not spared from these data collection challenges.

Across the board surveys have face higher non-response rates. Please see BLS's main webpage for a more in-depth review on response rates. Household and establishment survey response rates : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov).

In addition, it has been found that a self -response mode can lead different types of households to respond to government-sponsored surveys. For people not interested in an interviewer-based data collection method, they may be more receptive to a self-response method. The American Community Survey (ACS) has done extensive research on this topic.

As demonstrated on Table 15 and 16 of ACS's first field test review conducted in 2011, internet respondents tended to be “younger, female, Asian, other race, with higher education and more likely to speak a language other than English at home”².

Additionally, households with five-year-olds tended to see an increase in self-response rate when offered an internet option. “Younger adults and households with a child under five -- we found that both of these groups were significantly more likely to respond by Internet, but only households with a child under five also saw a significant increase in self-response”³

Internet modes have also been shown to perform comparably to mail modes as it pertains to numeric outlier analysis, correlations, and differences in response error.^{4, 5}

Lastly,  research has shown that offering respondents multiple modes does not dampen response rates or have a significant impact on mode paralysis.²

The first step in Modernization is to add an Internet Self Response (ISR) Mode. This section will review the testing and planning needed for this implementation. This is a multi-year project with the goal of extensively reviewing and testing ISR as a viable mode for CPS. The goal of testing is to ensure that no changes, including the option to complete the survey via ISR, affect the reliability of the estimates produced by CPS. This schedule seeks to bring the ISR mode to CPS as quickly as possible while doing the due diligence needed for such an important indicator. Our schedule and activities may change to accommodate unforeseen obstacles, including but not limited to funding restrictions, discovery of issues during testing and analysis, and project reprioritization.

The general timeline is as follows:

Survey methodologists from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics have performed an expert review of the existing CPS questionnaire to identify areas where changes may be necessary for an internet self-response mode. For example, several CPS items require an interviewer to ask follow-up questions as necessary to elicit sufficient detail from respondents, such as descriptions of job titles and job duties. There are also questions that are interviewer-coded based on respondents providing open-ended answers (e.g., a question on which techniques respondents looking for work used to try to find a job). Since there is no interviewer present in an internet self-response mode, the format of these questions needs to be adapted. As part of the review, survey methodologists made recommendations for changes and identified areas for future research. Subject matter experts reviewed these recommendations and determined which would be implemented.

There are several key features of the CPS that impact multiple questions. For example, many questions refer to a specific reference period (e.g., last week). In the current interviewer-administered CPS, interviewers state the reference period out loud, often at the beginning of a question. However, it may or may not be most effective to follow the same convention in an internet instrument. As another example, in the current instrument, help text is available for interviewers to provide if a respondent needs it. On the internet, respondents may not know they need the help text, or they may choose not to read it. Determining how to best display and incorporate help text is important. To explore these kinds of issues, survey methodologists from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics created an online version of the CPS with follow-up questions embedded in the instrument. Two versions were tested of multiple design features. This was fielded to a non-probability sample of respondents for research purposes. Analysis is ongoing.

Survey methodologists at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics have been conducting one-on-one cognitive interviews with members of the public to learn more about the potential challenges in an internet self-response mode of the CPS. The goal of the cognitive interviews is to learn more about the thought process respondents undergo while answering questions and suggest ways in which the survey questions can be improved. These early interviews have been particularly helpful for providing preliminary insight into more complex areas for future research. Cognitive testing will continue with further refined versions of an internet response mode CPS.

The CPS instrument is being programmed into the new CPS enterprise data collection solution. Since this new solution includes a new type of data collection instrument all housed within Census, all modes are being reprogrammed. Integration into the new systems will need to be reviewed even if there are no changes. After each round of testing, changes will be implemented and internally reviewed for accuracy.

The introduction of an internet self-response mode is well documented in the Census Bureau. In 2011 the ACS conducted two internet tests to evaluate the feasibility of introducing an internet mode to the survey. Both tests in April⁷ and in November⁸ concluded that the introduction of an internet mode combined with a paper follow-up increases the self-administered response rate compared to paper only data collection method. As a result, ACS fully integrated internet self-response to its data collection strategy in 2013⁹.

One of the key highlights from the 2013 report was how “Internet responses composed 55.7% of all self-responses.” 

Respondents are taking advantage of the internet mode for participating in our surveys.

CPS will leverage both the latest research, as well as the best practices and lesson learned from the ACS and incorporate to its operation.

Cognitive testing, development, and review will continue. As the year proceeds, the focus will be less on the review of wording to finalization of instrument for field testing including things like output testing to make sure no changes are erroneously added.

This will be the first-time performing usability testing on the CPS ISR instrument. The goal of usability testing is to make sure respondents can use the ISR mode efficiently and intuitively by understanding the user interface (UI) of the screen and the flow of the instrument.

The first field tests will focus on reviewing Internet self-response as a viable mode for respondents by reviewing the uptake by them. It will also conduct various experiments on how to make an internet mode as successful as possible. Areas of focus such as different wording options, contact strategies, and other procedural changes will be tested in an environment similar to production to see what kind of responses are received and what is the best contact strategy to encourage the uptake of ISR by respondents, in order to ensure the most efficient and accurate reporting.  

The field test will test both ISR and CAPI to try to find the optimal mix of modes for response rate, data quality, and cost effectiveness. The test plan is still being developed.  

The goal of the 2nd field test is to “replicate” production. Based on the 1^st year tests, the CPS team will determine the best approach for implementation and attempt to replicate as much as possible in a more shortened time frame than a typical 16-month data collection. This will allow us to best review the output as supportive evidence of what to expect in production and address any issues beforehand.

Once testing is complete and new production protocols are agreed to, CPS will start to phase in the new internet mode. The best way to phase in is to include an additional sample that can be processed along with the standard production sample so comparisons can be made while not impacting any estimates. The adding of ISR workload would gradually switch to the standard production in order to limit any impacts due to its implementation. 

In addition to the new internet mode, other modernization efforts currently on the way for CPS.

• Census is deploying new operational control software to improve data collection processes. The new software will allow Census to improve cost-tracking, improve support for language barrier challenges, and better implement adaptive design. Field training will also be enhanced as part of the transition.
• Research is being done on implementing adaptive design to implement cost savings while maintaining data quality. The design is looking at characteristics of a household from previous interview to predict if an interview is likely to be completed as well as based on the contact attempts for that data collection.
• The Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) will also modernize. In addition to introducing internet self-response mode, review of the use of administrative records to help reduce respondent burden is being done.
• Beginning research on other considerations related to the long-term sustainability of CPS. This includes analyzing current response rate trends and reviewing CPS as a whole to ensure the continuation of high-quality CPS data in the future.

Your feedback is important. If you have any questions, feedback or would like to be notified of updates, please email us at demo.cps@census.gov.