Missing data and small-area estimation in the UK Labour Force Survey
N. T. Longford
Abstract
We apply multivariate shrinkage to estimate the local-area rates of
unemployment and economic inactivity in the UK Labour Force Survey.
A key feature of the method is exploitation of the similarity of the
rates of claiming unemployment benefit and the unemployment rates as
defined by the International Labour Organisation.
This is done without any distributional assumptions, merely relying on
the high correlation of the two rates.
The estimation is integrated with a multiple imputation procedure for
missing employment status of subjects in the database (item
non-response).
The hot deck method used in the imputations is adapted so as to
reflect the uncertainty in the model for nonresponse.
The method is motivated as a development (improvement) on the current
operational procedure in which the imputed value is a non-stochastic
function of the data.
An extension of the procedure to subjects absent from the database
(unit non-response) is proposed.
Supported by the Campion Fellowship.