Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted how the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) collected data, caused measurement challenges, and spurred innovation. This presentation illustrates how BLS addressed these challenges and took advantage of new opportunities that arose. BLS published all news releases according to their previously announced schedule, provided impact summaries concurrent with the releases, and added new measures. BLS stopped all in-person data collection, closed call centers, and supported telework (work from home). The pandemic disrupted models, such as seasonal adjustment and those that rely on historical relationships, forcing BLS to make modifications in real time. But the pandemic also spurred innovation. BLS begun to collect data through video conferences and expanded web collection. BLS added COVID-related questions to its monthly labor force survey. BLS replaced questions on a previously planned establishment survey about outsourcing with questions about businesses’ experience during the pandemic. BLS also administered a supplemental survey to respondents from whom data has been collected across time. After discussing these changes, the presentation will conclude with highlighting the implications for going forward.