Current Population Survey (CPS) Publications

Most-Requested CPS Publications

• Employment Situation news release (HTML) (PDF) (Charts) (Archives) (Schedule)
• Effects of COVID-19 pandemic and response on the Employment Situation (Monthly impact summary)


• How the government measures unemployment (HTML) (PDF)


• Other economic news releases


• Monthly, quarterly, and annual tables


• Technical documentation
  • Handbook of Methods
  • Concepts and definitions
  • Seasonal adjustment
  • Occupational and industry classification 
  • More CPS technical documentation


• Browse data and publications by subject: CPS A to Z, demographics, labor force characteristics, and earnings

Recent Research by CPS Staff

• Job market remains tight in 2019, as the unemployment rate falls to its lowest level since 1969 (April 2020)


• Labor Market Activity of Blacks in the United States (February 2020)


• American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S. labor force (November 2019)


• Professional certifications and occupational licenses: evidence from the Current Population Survey (June 2019)


• Tight labor market continues in 2018 as the unemployment rate falls to a 49-year low (May 2019)


• Measuring labor market activity today: are the words work and job too limiting for surveys? (November 2018)


• Workers in Alternative Employment Arrangements (November 2018)


• Labor force characteristics of people with a disability (October 2018)


• A Look at Contingent Workers (September 2018)


• Electronically mediated work: new questions in the Contingent Worker Supplement (September 2018)


• Great Recession, great recovery? Trends from the Current Population Survey (April 2018)


• Who chooses part-time work and why? (March 2018)


• The Current Population Survey—tracking unemployment in the United States for over 75 years (January 2018)

CPS Reports and Summaries

• Minimum wage workers:  Characteristics of minimum wage workers, 2020  (Archives, Excel tables, and more)
• Race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity:  Labor Force Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity, 2019   (Archives and more)
• Earnings:  Highlights of Women's Earnings in 2019  (Archives, Excel tables, and more)
• Women:  Women in the Labor Force: A Databook  (Archives and more)
• Working Poor:  A Profile of the Working Poor, 2018  (Archives and more)


• From the Archvies: Charting the U.S. Labor Market (2006) (2005)


• Browse data and publications by subject: CPS A to Z, demographics, labor force characteristics, and earnings

CPS Survey Methods Publications

• Handbook of Methods
• Methodology for seasonally adjusting national household labor force series
• Adjustments to household survey population estimates


• Current Population Survey, design and methodology (Technical paper 77) (October 2019) (PDF)
  (list of formulas, expressions, and component variables in spoken version - XLSX)
• Previous versions of CPS design and methodology:
  • Technical paper 66, October 2006 (PDF)
  • Technical paper 63, revised March 2002 (PDF)
  • Technical paper 63, March 2000 (PDF)

 

Last Modified Date: April 14, 2021