Please don’t forget that the establishment survey excludes agricultural workers and many of the self-employed. The establishment survey has a lot going for it, but only for the part of the economy it covers. For anyone interested in the national economy, I recommend using the establishment survey plus unincorporated self-employed (from the household survey, seasonally adjusted) plus agricultural workers (also from the household survey, seasonally adjusted). See also the BLS on this matter.
One of the critiques of the household survey is that it is noisy month-to-month — I agree. But my proposed augmentation of the establishment survey is not particularly noisy because the vast majority of its employment is from the establishment survey.
Changes from April 2014 to May 2014 (100s of workers):
+217 establishment survey
-213 unincorporated self-employed
-116 agricultural workers
———————————-
-112 National employment change
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