BLS-790 – The Federal Office of Management and Budget assigns numbers to all U.S. government survey forms. BLS-790 is the assigned number of the form used to collect data for the CES survey. 

Base Period – A selected period of time, frequently one year, against which changes in other years are calculated. The relationship is usually expressed as base year = 100. For example, suppose the base year chosen is 1967. To calculate the change in average annual income of textile workers, the current year’s average annual income, for example, $10,000, is divided by the average annual income for 1967, which was $8,000; 10,000/8,000 = 1.25. To eliminate the decimal point, this figure is multiplied by 100: 100 x 1.25 = 125. This would indicate that income in the current year is 25 percent higher than it was in the base year.

Benchmark – A point of reference (either an estimate or a count) from which measurements can be made or upon which adjustments to estimates are based. 

For the current employment statistics (CES) survey, annual benchmarks are constructed in order to realign the sample-based employment totals for March of each year with the UI-based population counts for March.  These population counts are much less timely than sample-based estimates; however, they provide an annual point-in-time census for employment. 

Benefits – The cost to employers for paid leave, supplemental pay (including nonproduction bonuses), insurance, retirement and savings plans and legally required benefits (such as social Security, Workers’ Compensation, and Unemployment Insurance).  Excluded from employee benefits are such items as payment-in-kind, free room and board, and tips.

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) – Part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. A federal statistical agency responsible for estimation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Data from the Current Employment Statistics and Employment Statistics-202 programs are used in the GDP estimates. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) – A federal agency, established in 1884 and now part of the U.S. Department of Labor, that functions as the principal data-gathering agency of the federal government in the field of labor economics. BLS collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates data relating to employment, unemployment, the labor force, productivity, prices, family expenditures, wages, industrial relations, and occupational safety and health. This often is accomplished in cooperation with state employment security agencies through federal/state cooperative agreements. Its chief publications include the Monthly Labor Review, Consumer Price Index, Wholesale Prices and Price Indexes, and Employment and Earnings. 

Business Cycle – A pattern of fluctuation in economic activity, characterized by alternate expansion and contraction. In general, business activity expands with rising industrial production, employment, prices, wages, and profits. It reaches a high point of prosperity and remains there for a time. Then activity begins to contract, with business volume receding, and production, employment, prices, etc., declining for a time until a low point is reached. After a time, recovery begins and business activity expands again. Economists distinguish four phases, known by various names: 1) expansion (prosperity boom), 2) contraction (crisis, recession, slump, downturn), 3) depression (trough, bust, crash, bottom), 4) recovery (revival, upturn).
          [See also - Labor Productivity, Recession, Unemployed]