(Bloomberg) -- The Bureau of Labor Statistics is no longer planning to cut the sample size of a critical labor market survey — at least for now — thanks to a recent stopgap spending bill.
The BLS flagged the decision in Friday’s jobs report, which depends on the Current Population Survey — also known as the household survey — to inform the unemployment rate and labor-force participation, among other figures. The recently passed continuing resolution “allows BLS to spend CPS funds at a faster rate,” according to a notice on its website Tuesday.
BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer first announced the planned cut to the sample size in June, citing budget constraints and declining response rates that have made the survey more expensive and difficult to conduct. It would reduce the number of households by 5,000 for a total of 55,000 starting in early 2025, which economists and statisticians have said would worsen the quality of the data and threaten some series — like data on small states and minorities — to fall from publication entirely.
The agency was given about $700 million for the fiscal year that just ended in September, and Congress is still ironing out the current year’s budget. The advocacy group Friends of BLS, as well as former White House economists, recently urged lawmakers to boost appropriations by about $20 million for fiscal 2025 — which would preserve the sample size and fund critical upgrades — but current proposals in the House and Senate fall far short of that.
However, the short-term funding bill passed in September, which keeps the government open until December, included a $6 million boost for the CPS. But the agency says a permanent increase in funds are needed to stave off the cut to the sample size for good.
“We will continue to monitor the budget situation and will keep the public updated about potential impacts to the CPS sample,” the BLS said on its website.
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