Response Rates and Methodology
Of our sample of 2,749 employers, 73.0% responded and were operating during the reference period, 2007 (see Table 1). A total of 145 employers refused to participate (5.3%), 125 were permanently out of business (4.5%), 50 were temporarily closed (1.8%), for an additional 28 employers we had insufficient address information (1.0%), and 13 employers had no employees during the reference period (0.5%). The net usable response rate was 84.0% for the year. Across the different survey quarters, the net response rate ranged from 80.3% in first and second quarters to 88.5% in fourth quarter.
The survey methodology was the same as in previous years. For a complete explanation of methodology, see Hauf, Knapp, and Leonard (2006).
