It's the best data that's available at the time. It's been collected in a consistent fashion for a significant duration of time. To understand how a new methodology would differ, we'd want to run a new process in parallel for a couple years.

A few notes from an interview on the Odd Lots podcast, interviewing Bill Beach, former head of the BLS:

* Response rates among surveyed employees are roughly:

Month 1 68%

Month 2 83%

Month 3 93-94%

* Large employers tend to respond sooner, and are staffed to handle these requests better.

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April 2025 interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-of-americas-most-...

August 2025 interview (after BLS head statistician was fired): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bill-beach-on-how-trum...

Some notes and a transcript: https://www.crisesnotes.com/bloomberg-odd-lots-podcast-trans...