> Doug Henwood wrote:
>>> Wasn't that # constructed rather differently back then?
>> Not really, no.
>
> My imagination? Here it says there were two substantial series breaks
> (1990, 1994):
> http://actrav.itcilo.org/actrav-english/telearn/global/ilo/seura/usunemp.htm
>
>
> And here we get a sense of a 'major redesign' of the primary survey:
> http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm
> ... the Government conducts a monthly sample survey called the Current
> Population Survey (CPS) to measure the extent of unemployment in the
> country. The CPS has been conducted in the United States every month
> since 1940 when it began as a Work Projects Administration project. It
> has been expanded and modified several times since then. As explained
> later, the CPS estimates, beginning in 1994, reflect the results of a
> major redesign of the survey.
These aren't the kind of redesigns that have meaningful effects on the overall results. The BLS studied this for the 1994 redesign and concluded that "the new methodology did not have a significant effect on the overall unemployment rate." <http://www.bls.gov/ore/pdf/ec950090.pdf>
SA