January 1994 — 1994-01-07

___________________________________________________________ Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. ____________________________________________ the labor market is clearly stronger than it was a year ago. -- develop an estimate, based upon the historical relationship between changes in the unemployment rate and changes in other economic indicators, of what the January 1994 rate would have been had the old survey been continued; -- using information from the 12,000 household survey conducted during 1992 and 1993 to test the new methods, develop estimates of what the unemployment rate would have been had the new survey been in place during that period; and, finally, -- assess, as best we can, the special factors related to the survey being fielded for the first time that may impinge upon the January 1994 estimates.