Respondent Acceptance of Web and E-mail Data Reporting for an Establishment SurveyRichard Rosen, Louis Harrell, Hong Yu
Division of Current Employment StatisticsBureau of Labor Statistics
Third International Conference on Establishment SurveysMontreal, Quebec, Canada
June 18-21, 2007
Current Employment Statistics (CES)
• Monthly survey of employment, payroll, and hours• A Federal-State cooperative system • A sample of 300,000 business establishments• CES data are published after only 10-14 days of
collection• Provides key economic indicators
Employment by industry, state, and area Average hourly earnings Average weekly hours
Goals/Objectives
Explore different methods of distributing and collecting CES reports
Utilize existing technology Minimize respondent burden
Software
Used off-the-shelf software SurveyTracker from Training Technologies Inc.
http://www.surveytracker.com/ The software package costs around $3800
Phases of e-mail collection
Form design Distribution Respondent’s e-mail box Retrieval Export
Survey Tracker
Design
CES Form Design
Distribution
Respondent’s E-mail Box
Confirmation Screen
Response
Retrieval
Retrieval
Export
The software exports by comma separated value format
Read into SAS program and export into the format of choice
Advantages
Ubiquitousness of e-mail• The prevalence of e-mail in everyday life is such that almost
anybody with a phone line and a minimal cost to sign up for internet service allow individuals to get an e-mail address
Using off-the-shelf software• By utilizing off-the-shelf software to design and distribute the
software, it saves the effort of re-inventing the wheel Low marginal cost
• Sending e-mails costs close to nothing Utilization of pre-existing infrastructure
• Utilization of pre-existing e-mail server as well as web server saves cost and time
Disadvantages
No data edits• Due to the security issues, no data edits will be performed
by the e-mail SPAM blockers
• ISPs with aggressive SPAM blockers may flag the survey as SPAM
Ill-formed data• No easy way to account for respondent mistakes
Reliance on software vendor• Necessary to rely on the software vendor initiative to
address the problems
Current Status
Incorporated as one of the CES collection methods starting February 2007
Comparable to pre-existing collection methods Survey Tracker deemed to be not suitable, looking
into another software package• Inability to handle large database• Compatibility issues
Minimum requirement: Outlook and Internet Explorer Not all respondents who meet the minimum requirement can
respond
Collection Rate Comparison
All TDE Web E-mail
February 73% 73% 66% 74%
March 68% 73% 64% 67%
April 69% 69% *60% 70%
*CES experienced web server problems during April 2007
E-Mail Collection Data Item Response Rate
WW AEPR AEHR GME PW PR HR
90% 76% 70% 74% 80% 60% 59%
CES and Web
CES has been collecting data via Internet since 1996 (first Federal Agency)
BLS Developed an Enterprise level Internet Facility to promote: Security and continuity of operations Uniform standards for Web pages Cross-survey participation
BLS Model
Initial BLS Model Included: Digital Certificates Option to use an account number and password Password requirements are stringent
Min. 8 chars. Including letters, numbers, upper/lower case CES has experienced declining Web response,
looking for something new …
TDE vs Web Response Rates
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
TDE 1stCl
Web 1stCl
Issues with Current Web Site
Transition to Web was complicated Temporary Account/password Permanent account/password or digital certificate
Ongoing Reporting Forgot account/password Non-renewal of certificate/not portable
Contact change/turnover Lose continuity of knowledge on reporting Need to re-issue account/certificate
Web-Lite Features
No temporary account/password No permanent account/password No digital certificate Access gained through CES Report ID already
on the CES form More-”TDE Like”
Web-Lite Design Compromises
No respondent identifying information displayed
Cannot update contact information on-line No historical data shown
Reduces visual continuity of reporting Limits edit capability
Cannot directly link to other BLS Web surveys
Security
Site remains secure: SSL 128 bit encryption Data stored on separate server Firewall protects other BLS resources Use of CAPTCHA
What is CAPTCHA?
Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.
A trademarked acronym owned by Carnegie Mellon University.
Used to determine whether a user is human or a robot.
First developed in 1997, by Andrei Broder at Altavista.
Comparison of TDE and Web Response Rates, January 2004-March 2007TDE vs. Web 1st Closing Response Rates
Jan. 2004 - Mar. 2007
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Jan04
Feb04
Mar
04
Apr04
May
04
Jun04
Jul0
4
Aug04
Sep04
Oct
04
Nov04
Dec04
Jan05
Feb05
Mar
05
Apr05
May
05
Jun05
Jul0
5
Aug05
Sep05
Oct
05
Nov05
Dec05
Jan06
Feb06
Mar
06
Apr06
May
06
Jun06
Jul0
6
Aug06
Sep06
Oct
06
Nov06
Dec06
Jan07
Feb07
Mar
07
TDE 1stCl
Web 1stCl
Sources of New Units Converted to Web Lite
Web Adds by Active FlagJan06 - Jan07
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2000
2200
2400
200601 200602 200603 200604 200605 200606 200607 200608 200609 200610 200611 200612 200701
Old Web
Old Web to Lite
TDE to Lite
State to Lite
DCC to Lite
Response Rate Comparison for TDE, Old Web, and Web Lite
Web Lite, TDE, Old Web and Total Web 1st Closing Response RatesApr06 - Jan07
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Apr06 May06 Jun06 Jul06 Aug06 Sep06 Oct06 Nov06 Dec06 Jan07
TDE to Lite
DCC to Lite
TDE
Old Web to Lite
Total Web
Old Web
Data Item Response Rates, Selected Items, March 2007
Women Workers
Gross Month Earnings
Total % Received % Received
DCC to Lite 4,611 52% 45%
State to Lite 51 53% 27%
TDE to Lite 2,331 62% 47%
Old Web to Lite 349 45% 28%
Old Web 1,760 44% 25%
Conclusions
If technical issues can be overcome, e-mail appears to be a viable collection method. Response rates are favorable Offers visual interface of web collection
Research will continue on possible candidates for e-mail data collection software.
Web offers on-line editing, and recent months had performance superior to TDE
Web Lite offers improved item response rates