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Title: How the Federal Government Uses Data from the National Longitudinal Surveys
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Pergamit, Michael R.
How the Federal Government Uses Data from the National Longitudinal Surveys
NLS Discussion Paper No. 92-1, Washington DC: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1991.
Also: http://stats.bls.gov/ore/abstract/nl/nl910040.htm
Cohort(s): NLS General
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): Aptitude; Australia, Australian; Australian Longitudinal Survey (ALS); Cross-national Analysis; Hispanics; Longitudinal Surveys; Military Service; Minimum Wage; NLS Description; Sample Selection; Transition, School to Work

This paper gives some recent examples of uses of how the U.S. Government uses National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) and is compared to the Australian Longitudinal Survey (ALS). These surveys were begun in the mid 1960's with the drawing of four samples: Young men who were 14-24 years old in 1966, young women who were 14-24 years old in 1968, older men who were 45-59 years old in 1966, and mature women who were 3044 years old in 1967. Each sample originally had about 5,000 individuals with oversamples of blacks. In the early 1980's, the young men and older men surveys were discontinued. The two women's surveys continue and are currently on a biannual interview cycle. In 1979, a new cohort was begun with a sample of over 12,000 young men and women who were 14-21 years old on January 1, 1979. It included oversamples of blacks, Hispanics, economically disadvantaged whites, and youth in the military. This survey, called the NLSY, has been carried out by conducting interviews every year since it began. After twelve waves of interviewing, the retention rate was 89.9 percent of the original sample. The NLSY was started in order to evaluate the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. Over time the NLS developed into a more general purpose data set for the study of labor market behavior, and was transferred to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in October 1986. In the time the BLS has overseen the NLS program, a multi-dimensional approach toward regular use of the data has been developed. To illustrate governmental uses of the NLS data in the United States, this paper focuses primarily on uses of the NLSY because it is more similar to the Australian Longitudinal Survey (ALS), for which it served as a model. Six different areas of research to demonstrate use of the NLSY are discussed along with some of the findings. These areas are recent minimum wage legislation, wage paths of young people, the transition from school to work, work and the family, training, and the effects of military experience on post service success of low-aptitude recruits. Each of these areas is described in a separate section and discusses one or more studies.
Bibliography Citation
Pergamit, Michael R. "How the Federal Government Uses Data from the National Longitudinal Surveys." NLS Discussion Paper No. 92-1, Washington DC: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1991.