Comparison of alternative Labour Force Survey estimators

This paper looks at a range of estimators applicable to a regularly repeated household survey with controlled overlap between successive surveys. The paper shows how the Best Linear Unbiased Estimator (BLUE) based on a fixed window of time points can be improved by applying the technique of generalised regression. This improved estimator is compared to the AK estimator of Gurney and Daly (1965) and the modified regression estimator of Singh, Kennedy, Wu and Brisebois (1997), using data from the Australian Labour Force Survey.