Chart: Improved Timeliness & Response Rates

Our goal is to release Quarterly Retirement data by the end of the quarter that follows the reference period.  For example, 2nd quarter data which covers the calendar quarter ending June 30th would ultimately be released by the end of the 3rd calendar quarter – September 30th.  Although time is of the essence, the quality of the data cannot be sacrificed.  That is to say, we cannot forego our high response rates.  In 2009, 2nd quarter data was released with a 90 percent response rate and a four-month lag from the end of the reference period to the public release of the data.  One year later, we released 2nd quarter data two weeks ahead of schedule, while improving our 2nd quarter response rate from 90 percent in 2009 to 95 percent in 2010.

In addition to reducing the lag for the public release of the data, we have greatly improved the response rates during the weeks leading up to the release.  Starting with the 1st calendar quarter of 2010, we delivered preliminary data to the Federal Reserve Board, which uses the Quarterly Retirement data for the Flow of Funds Accounts.  We also started providing the Quarterly Retirement data to the Bureau of Economic Analysis for the GDP estimates.

Prior to 2010, the Federal Reserve Board used Quarterly Retirement data to revise previously published figures in the Flow of Funds Accounts.  The preliminary data now contributes to the Fed’s current release instead of being used solely for revisions to the prior release.

Similarly, the Bureau of Economic Analysis has been incorporating preliminary Quarterly Retirement data into their methodology for the current quarterly estimate.  Specifically, data on government contributions for retirement have been used as part of the estimate for state and local compensation of government employees, which is a component of state and local GDP.  Before receiving preliminary Quarterly Retirement data files, the BEA relied solely on trend estimate projections during the current estimate for all of their retirement series.  Now that they are receiving Quarterly Retirement data in time for their current estimate, they can replace projections with actual data.