Current Population Survey

Abstract The current population survey (CPS) is the world's longest continuing large‐scale sample survey. Carried out by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the CPS forms the basis of the monthly release of U.S. employment rates. The design of the CPS involves a complex combination of stratification, clustering, and random selection, and it follows a special rotating panel structure of households that allows for special month to month and year to year comparisons. The CPS is perhaps the most‐studied survey in the world and is widely emulated, but its monthly employment statistics are not without controversy.