As you can see on the graph below, the 2024 benchmark, -0.5%, is the fifth largest over the last 32 years, among 2009’s -0.7%, 1994’s +0.7%, 2006’s +0.6%, and 1995’s +0.5%. It’s reassuring they aren’t all in the same direction. The annual benchmark is an integral part of the BLS process, and a major reason the establishment series is so important
Between 1993 and 2000, revisions averaged 0.3% in absolute terms, narrowing to 0.2% between 2001 and 2019, including 0.2% between 2001 and 2008, and 0.1% between 2010 and 2019. Since 2020, the average moved back up to 0.3%, not so surprising given the displacements of the pandemic.
In our experience, the employees at the Bureau of Labor Statistics take questions seriously. We all have many questions, sometimes presented as theories and even facts, about how demographic groups may be affecting differences between the establishment and household surveys, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, and hence the benchmark itself. We all can address those open questions to the staff at BLS. They will look into our questions, and in time they will answer them. And they may turn up methodological issues they can clarify or improve in the process.
