These changes include a new industry classification system that will provide more detail on the service sector, a probability based sampling method that will take into account economic shifts, more accurate seasonal adjustments, and a change in the way that the government jobs are classified to include the civilian defense department. These changes will only affect the establishment survey, which deals with data on non-farm payrolls, hours and earnings. There is disagreement among analysts as to whether these changes will lead to a positive or to a negative revision of job data.
See "Revamped jobless report to debut", Chicago Tribune, June 2, 2003