Real-Time Labor Market Estimates During the 2020 Coronavirus Outbreak

Abstract

This project aims to provide labor market data several weeks ahead of official statistics via a national online labor market survey of a sample representative of the US working age population. We refer to the survey as the Real-Time Population Survey (RPS). Core questions in the RPS closely follow the official US labor market survey (the CPS), which allows us to construct estimates consistent with theirs. The RPS was conducted twice monthly from March through October, and since then is conducted monthly.

Keywords: Real-time, labor market, employment, unemployment, COVID-19

JEL Classification: E24, J21, J31