Form Appendix A Appendix A Framing Instructions Survey Questions

Appendix A: Survey questions

The questions will be presented in “sections” of 6 questions at a time; each of the 6 questions within a section will be presented as a grid using the same response scale. The 6 questions in Section A will be presented first for all participants, in a randomized order. The remaining sections to be presented (Section B1-B7) will be randomly selected to match the survey length specified by the experimental design, and the order of questions within a section will be randomized.

Section A (agree-disagree scale)

1. I think high unemployment is a good thing for the American economy.

2. I think the health of the economy is relevant to everyone’s well being.

3. I am knowledgeable about the economy.

4. I like to think about what the future will be like for the average American.

5. I am a “numbers person”.

6. I think that it is getting easier to find a job these days compared to last year.

Section B1 (frequency scale)

7. Watch more than 2 hours of news programming during a day. (Likely LOW)

8. Share on social media a news story related to the inflation rate. (Likely LOW)

9. Visit BLS.gov to learn about the economy. (Likely LOW)

10. Watch or read transcripts of the BLS Commissioner testifying before Congress. (Likely LOW)

11. Read or hear about the Department of Labor in the news. (Likely LOW)

12. Read or hear about the White House or the President of the United States in the news. (Likely HIGH)

Section B2 (agree-disagree)

13. I am willing to pay for the Producer Price Index to cover more services. (Likely DISAGREE)

14. The lag in publishing the Producer Price Index affects me negatively. (Likely DISAGREE)

15. I find the Producer Price Index to be useful. (Likely DISAGREE)

16. I would be interested in accessing historical Producer Price Index data. (Likely DISAGREE)

17. The Producer Price Index is biased by tax cutting policies. (Likely DISAGREE)

18. I am not familiar with how data for the Producer Price Index are collected. (Likely AGREE)

Section B3 (frequency scale)

19. Use employment projections to speculate on the economy. (Likely LOW)

20. Download employment and wage BLS tables for my own use. (Likely LOW)

21. Compare wages over time for my state. (Likely LOW)

22. Purchase third-party data to supplement BLS data. (Likely LOW)

23. Look for the Employment Situation report on the first Friday of the month. (Likely LOW)

24. Hear about the unemployment rate from television or Internet news sources. (Likely HIGH)

Section B4 (agree-disagree scale)

25. I do not use the data tools on BLS.gov. (Likely AGREE)

26. I do not use the data dictionaries to look up unfamiliar variables. (Likely AGREE)

27. The Handbook of Methods is useful to some people for understanding how BLS data are collected. (Likely AGREE)

28. Visualizations of data on BLS.gov would be helpful to most users (Likely AGREE)

29. I typically start at Google when I need to find information. (Likely AGREE)

30. I use the SAS statistical program every day. (Likely DISAGREE)

Section B5 (frequency)

31. Access multifactor productivity news releases. (Likely LOW)

32. Use quarterly indexes of labor productivity. (Likely LOW)

33. Track national hourly compensation, output per hour, or unit labor costs. (Likely LOW)

34. Look up how productivity is calculated. (Likely LOW)

35. Access productivity data produced by any organization other than BLS. (Likely LOW)

36. Estimate my own labor productivity. (Likely HIGH)

Section B6 (agree-disagree)

37. It would be a good use of the BLS budget to redesign the regional BLS webpage for the Mid-Atlantic. (Likely DISAGREE)

38. It would be a good use of the BLS budget to redesign the regional BLS webpage for the Southeast. (Likely DISAGREE)

39. It would be a good use of the BLS budget to redesign the regional BLS webpage for the Midwest. (Likely DISAGREE)

40. It would be a good use of the BLS budget to redesign the regional BLS webpage for the Southwest. (Likely DISAGREE)

41. It would be a good use of the BLS budget to redesign its office space. (Likely DISAGREE)

42. Websites should be accessible to people with low vision or mobility. (Likely AGREE)