Reconciliation of labour market statistics using macro-integration

Abstract

Macro-integration techniques are used for the reconciliation of macro figures, usually in the form of large multi-dimensional tabulations, obtained from different sources. Traditionally these techniques have been extensively applied in the area of macro-economics, especially in the compilation of the National Accounts. Methods for macro-integration have developed over the years to become very versatile techniques for integration of data from different sources at the macro level. Applications in other domains than macro-economics seem promising. In this paper we present an application to labour market data from two sources, an administrative one and a survey, with slightly different definitions and different frequencies of reporting (monthly, quarterly). The purpose is to combine these estimates to form a single monthly estimate. Depending on the specification of the macro-integration model several alternatives for obtaining such estimates are derived.