[plain talk]

What are the "household numbers"? You may want to clearly spell out what you're talking about so everyone is clear.

[The Wizard]

Self employment, workiong from home, entrapenures, small business of under 20 people, etc......all the stuff that is booming today....

The old way of counting was based on large firms creating jobs....and I can tell you....Florida is almost all small businesses and they are everywhere.

[KarlInOhio]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics takes two surveys to calculate employment. These are the Current Employment Statistics Survey and the Current Population Survey, also known as the establishment survey and the household survey. FAQs on these are at http://stats.bls.gov/ces/cesfaq.htm and http://stats.bls.gov/cps/cps_faq.htm.

The establishment survey contacts a number of known employers while the household survey contacts people at random. The problem is that when people start working on their own or starting small companies, these tend to slip through the cracks of the establishment survey. It's pretty easy to give GM a call, but how does the BLS know about Joe's Appliance Repair until he starts filling out tax forms?

This time there was a huge difference between the two surveys. Of course the press and the 'Rats focus on the weaker of the two.

[rang1995]

painters,landscapers,contractors,plumbers,investors on the web, web based business,realtors(most are not on a payroll but work for themselves,some hairdressers etc etc