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Close. The reference period is the week before the survey (usually) so employed are those who during the reference week, worked at least one hour for pay or at least 15 hours unpaid in a family business or farm.
Yes, that was a misstatement on my part. When I said, "reports having worked for pay during the previous four weeks," I was thinking of people who report that they did not work during the reference week, and one of the follow-up questions asking if the person did anything to find work in the previous four weeks. Yer of course correct — only the reference week counts in the "did you work" context.
But I can perhaps correct you about something. (Whew!) You mention that "[t]he reference period is the week before the survey (usually)." My understanding is that the reference week is always the week before the survey is conducted. The survey is conducted in most months during the week of the 19th, with the reference period being the week of the 12th. But in most years, the process is moved up a week in November and December because of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Is that perhaps where you got the "usually" idea?
>>Ummm what do you mean "adjusting for the decline in public sector employment?" Why would you do that? And using the CPS employment data, 145,669,000 in April 2014 minus 138,013,000 in December 2009 equals 7,656,000. How did you get over 9 million? Exactly what adjustments did you make?
Here I was sloppy once again. I should have noted that the 9.2 million figure is based on the CES results, not those from the CPS.
Looking at the table below, non-farm employment stood at 138.3 million in April, compared to 129.7 million in Dec 2009, a difference of 8.6 million. Again looking at CES numbers, public-sector employment during those months fell from 22.5 million to 21.9 million, a difference of 600K.
To calculate the difference in private-sector employment, you subtract the change in public-sector jobs from the change in total non-farm jobs. 8.6 million minus a negative value of 600K yields a total of 9.2 million. I'm hoping that makes sense.
I am not possibly as adept as you might be with the different reports and such, I don't look at them for a living like you
Adept? Uh, …