September 24, 2024

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 Hu. [...] 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 th. [...] 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. [...] 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 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.