Dreier and Boehner Introduce 21st Century
Job Surveys Resolution
Measure Urges the BLS to Update National Employment Measurements

Job Surveys Resolution Text

January 4, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman David Dreier (R-CA), Chairman of the House Rules Committee, and Congressman John Boehner (R-OH), Chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, introduced legislation today which calls on the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to update its employment surveys in order to accurately reflect the changing nature of job creation in our dynamic 21st Century Economy.

“When BLS designed our employment surveys over sixty years ago, we had an economy dominated by heavy industries where the vast majority of jobs were in large, established companies,” said Dreier. “Today’s 21st Century technology and services economy is fueled to a much greater degree by small businesses, entrepreneurs and independent consultants.”

As one example of the changing face of the economy, Dreier cited the revolutionary eBay marketplace where over 400,000 individuals and small businesses make a significant part of their living. Many of those Internet sellers are not counted in the BLS Payroll Survey, which is often viewed as the significant benchmark in evaluating our economy’s ability to create jobs.

“Not only have the types of jobs changed, but the ways in which they are created have changed dramatically as well. One must look no further than Southern California, with its biotechnology facilities, independent IT contractors, and small, specialized consulting firms, to see that the employment landscape is vastly different than that of the pre-WWII days when our employment surveys were first created,” he said.

Boehner noted, “It's critically important that employment numbers produced by the federal government accurately reflect the nature of job creation in today's labor market. It's my hope that Congress can work with the Bureau of Labor Statistics to modernize this process to better reflect the job growth taking hold in today's economy, and that is what this resolution seeks to address."