Hello all, This email is response to Chuck's question about the definition on multiple job holding rates. I got the answer straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak! Ryan Helwig of the US BLS called me to answer the question below about the confusing title and footnotes on the tables on multiple job holding rates. Basically, the rate is a percentage of employed residents (as it was footnoted in the old table), and as far as the US BLS is concerned, that is the same thing as total employment (as it was titled in the new table). Therefore, the recent data can be compared with the old data for the purposes of examining trends, and the like. However, he did add one caveat. The recent data is collected monthly and averaged annually. The old data, prior to 1994, was only collected in every May. And some years they simply did not collect this data. To help us around this obstacle, he kindly provided the post-1994 May data along with the pre-1994 May data so we can really compare apples to apples. Hope this helps! Have fun! Adriel Edwards Transportation Planner Bureau of Transportation Planning and Development Massachusetts Highway Department (617) 973 -8062 -----Original Message----- From: Helwig_R [mailto:Helwig_R@BLS.GOV] Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 4:25 PM To: &#39;Adriel.Edwards(a)MHD.state.ma.us&#39; Subject: FW: multiple job holding rates <<Multiple jobholders May 1970-2002.xls>> Dear Adriel, I have attached the Excel file I mentioned with the multiple jobholding estimates (national) for May of each year. These data can be cited as "Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey." I will be out of the office next week, so if you have any questions, feel free to call our main office line on 202.691.6378 or email cpsinfo(a)bls.gov. Thanks, Ryan Helwig Bureau of Labor Statistics, Division of Labor Force Statistics Phone: 202.691.6385 Email: helwig_r(a)bls.gov -----Original Message----- From: Edwards, Adriel (MHD) [mailto:Adriel.Edwards@MHD.state.ma.us] Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 1:55 PM To: &#39;cewinfo(a)bls.gov&#39;gov'; &#39;cesinfo(a)bls.gov&#39;gov'; &#39;blsdata_staff(a)bls.gov&#39; Cc: &#39;cpurvis(a)mtc.ca.gov&#39; Subject: multiple job holding rates Hello, I am looking at trends in multiple jobholding rates and am trying to confirm the definition. According to the BLS glossary, multiple job holders (not the rate) are the people that have more than one job, with a few exceptions. Makes sense. The footnote in Table 1 in the article at http://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1997/03/art1full.pdf <http://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1997/03/art1full.pdf> has the rate as a percentage of employed persons. Good. But some confusion is arising because the title of Table 1 in article http://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/07/rgtrends.pdf <http://stats.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/07/rgtrends.pdf> has the rate as a percentage of total employment. My question is this: Is BLS's definition of "total employment" the same as that of "employed residents"? In other words, can we compare the data in the two articles and safely say, for example, that in 1991, the rate was 6.2% and in 2000 it was 5.6%? Thank you kindly and have a nice weekend, Adriel Edwards Transportation Planner Bureau of Transportation Planning and Development Massachusetts Highway Department (617) 973 -8062