1. Employed. Employed persons comprise (1) all civilians who, during the survey week did any work at all as paid employees or in their own business or profession, or on their own farm, or who work 15 hours or more as unpaid workers on a farm or a business operated by a member of the family; and (2) all those who have jobs but who are not working because of illness, bad weather, vacation, or labor-management dispute, or because they are taking time off for personal reasons, whether or not they are seeking other jobs. These persons would have an Labor Force Status Recode (LFSR) of 1 or 2 respectively in character 145 of the person record which designates ``at work'' and ``with a job, but not at work.'' Each employed person is counted only once. Those persons who held more than one job are counted in the job at which they worked the greatest number of hours during the survey week. If they worked an equal number of hours at more than one job, they are counted at the job they held the longest.
2. Unemployed. Unemployed persons are those civilians who, during the survey week, have no employment but are available for work, and (1) have engaged in any specific job seeking activity within the past 4 weeks such as registering at a public or private employment office, meeting with prospective employers, checking with friends or relatives, placing or answering advertisements, writing letters of application, or being on a union or professional register; (2) are waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off; or (3) are waiting to report to a new wage or salary job within 30 days. These persons would have an LFSR code of 3 or 4 in character 145 of the person record. The unemployed includes job leavers, job losers, new job entrants, and job reentrants.
a. Job Leavers. Persons who quit or otherwise terminate their employment voluntarily and immediately begin looking for work.
b. Job Losers. Persons whose employment ends involuntarily, who immediately begin looking for work, and those persons who are already /on layoff.
c. New Job Entrants. Persons who never worked at a full-time job lasting two weeks or longer.
d. Job Reentrants. Persons who previously worked at a full-time job lasting two weeks or longer but are out of the labor force prior to beginning to look for work.
3. Not in Labor Force. All civilians 15 years old and over who are not classified as employed or unemployed. These persons are further classified as major activity: keeping house, going to school, unable to work because of long-term physical or mental illness, and other. The ``other'' group includes, for the most part, retired persons. Persons who report doing unpaid work in a family farm or business for less than 15 hours are also classified as not in the labor force.
For persons not in the labor force, data on previous work experience, intentions to seek work again, desire for a job at the time of interview, and reasons for not looking for work are asked only in those households that are in the fourth and eighth months of the sample, i.e., the ``outgoing'' groups, those which had been in the sample for three previous months and would not be in for the subsequent month.
These items are asked in question 24; see the questionnaire facsimile. Such persons have an LFSR code of 5-7 in character 145 of the person record.
Finally, it should be noted that the unemployment rate represents the number of persons unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force 16 years old and over. This measure can also be computed for groups within the labor force classified by sex, age, marital status, race, etc. The job loser, job leaver, reentrant, and new entrant rates are each calculated as a percent of the civilian labor force 16 years old and over; the sum of the rates for the four groups thus equals the total unemployment rate.
Layoff. A person who is unemployed but expects to be called back to a specific job. If he/she expects to be called back within 30 days, it is considered a temporary layoff; otherwise, it is an indefinite layoff.
Level of School Completed/Degree Received . These data changed on the March 1992 file. A new question, ``What is the highest level of school ... has completed or the highest degree ... has received? Replace the old ``highest grade attended'' and ``year completed'' questions. The new question provides more accurate data on the degree status of college students. Educational attainment applies only to progress in ``regular'' school. Such schools include graded public, private, and parochial elementary and high schools (both junior and senior high), colleges, universities, and professional schools, whether day schools or night schools. Thus, regular schooling is that which may advance a person toward an elementary school certificate or high school diploma, or a college, university, or professional school degree. Schooling in other than regular schools is counted only if the credits obtained are regarded as transferable to a school in the regular school system.
Looking for Work. A person who is trying to get work or trying to establish a business or profession.
March Supplement Weight. The March supplement weight is on all person records and is used to produce ``supplement'' estimates; that is, income, work experience, migration, and family characteristic estimates.
Marital Status. The marital status classification identifies four major categories: single (never married), married, widowed, and divorced. These terms refer to the marital status at the time of enumeration.
The category ``married'' is further divided into ``married, civilian spouse present,'' ``married, Armed Force spouse present,'' ``married, spouse absent,'' ``married, Armed Force spouse absent,'' and ``separated.'' A person is classified as ``married, spouse present'' if the husband or wife is reported as a member of the household even though he or she may be temporarily absent on business or on vacation, visiting, in a hospital, etc., at the time of the enumeration. Persons reported as ``separated'' included those with legal separations, those living apart with intentions of obtaining a divorce, and other persons permanently or temporarily estranged from their spouses because of marital discord.
For the purpose of this file, the group ``other marital status'' includes ``widowed and divorced,'' ``separated,'' and ``other married, spouse absent.''
Medicare. The Medicare Program is designed to provide medical care for the aged and disabled. The Basic Hospital Insurance Plan (Part A) is designed to provide basic protection against hospital costs and related post-hospital services. This plan also covers many persons under 65 years old who receive Social Security or railroad retirement benefits based on long-term disability. Part A is financed jointly by employers and employees through Social Security payroll deductions. Qualified persons 65 years old and over who are not otherwise eligible for Part A benefits may pay premiums directly to obtain this coverage. The Medical Insurance Plan (Part B) is a voluntary plan which builds upon the hospital insurance protection provided by the basic plan. It provides insurance protection covering physicians' and surgeons' services and a variety of medical and other health services received either in hospitals or on an ambulatory basis. It is financed through monthly premium payments by each enrollee, and subsidized by Federal general revenue funds.
The Medicare question on the March CPS attempted to identify all persons 15 years old and over who were ``covered'' by Medicare at any time during the previous calendar year. The term ``covered'' means enrolled in the Medicare Program. In order to be counted, the person did not necessarily have to receive medical care paid for by Medicare.
Medicaid. The Medicaid Program is designed to provide medical assistance to needy families with dependent children, and to aged, blind, or permanently and totally disabled individuals whose incomes and resources are insufficient to meet the costs of necessary medical services. The program is administered by State agencies through grants from the Health Care Financing Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services. Funding for medical assistance payments consists of a combination of Federal, State, and in some cases, local funds.
Medicaid is a categorical program with complex eligibility rules which vary from State to State. There are two basic groups of eligible individuals: the categorically eligible and the medically needy. The major categorically eligible groups are all Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients and most Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. Other categorically eligible groups are (1) those who meet basic State cash assistance eligibility rules/aged, blind, disabled, needy single parents with children, and, in some States, needy unemployed parents with children, but who are not currently receiving money payments; and (2) needy persons who meet categorical eligibility standards but are institutionalized for medical reasons (e.g., low-income elderly persons in nursing homes). However, such institutionalized persons are not included in the CPS universe and, therefore, are not reflected in these statistics.
In roughly one-half of the States, coverage is extended to the medically needy/persons meeting categorical age, sex, or disability criteria, whose money incomes and assets exceed eligibility levels for cash assistance but are not sufficient to meet the cost of medical care. In such States, qualifying income and asset levels are usually above those set for cash assistance. Families with large medical expenses relative to their incomes and assets may also meet medically needy eligibility standards in these States.
The Medicaid question on the March CPS attempted to identify all persons who were ``covered'' by Medicaid at any time during the previous calendar year. The term ``covered'' means enrolled in the Medicaid program, i.e., had a Medicaid medical assistance card, or incurred medical bills which were paid for by Medicaid. In order to be counted, the person did not have to receive medical care paid for by Medicaid.
After data collection and creation of an initial microdata file, further refinements were made to assign Medicaid coverage to children. In this procedure all children under 21 years old in families were assumed to be covered by Medicaid if either the householder or spouse reported being covered by Medicaid (this procedure was required mainly because the Medicaid coverage question was asked only for persons 15 years old and over). All adult AFDC recipients and their children, and SSI recipients living in States which legally require Medicaid coverage of all SSI recipients, were also assigned coverage.
Mobility Status. The population of the United States, 15 years old and over, is classified according to mobility status on the basis of a comparison between the place of residence of each individual at the time of the March CPS and the place of residence in March of the previous year.
The information on mobility status is obtained from the responses to a series of inquiries. The first of three inquiries is: ``Was...living in this house 1 year ago...?'' If the answer was ``No,'' the enumerator asked, ``Where did...live on March 1, 1988?'' In classification, three main categories distinguish nonmovers, movers, and movers from abroad.
Nonmovers are all persons who are living in the same house at the end of the period as at the beginning of the period. Movers are all persons who are living in a different house at the end of the period than at the beginning of the period. Movers from abroad include all persons, either citizens or aliens, whose place of residence is outside the United States at the beginning of the period, that is, in an outlying area under the jurisdiction of the United States or in a foreign country. The mobility status for children is fully allocated from the mother if she is in the household; otherwise it is allocated from the householder.
Month-In-Sample. The term is defined as the number of times a unit is interviewed. Each unit is interviewed eight times during the life of the sample.
Never Worked. A person who has never held a full-time civilian job lasting two consecutive weeks or more.
Nonfamily Householder. A nonfamily householder (formerly called a primary individual) is a person maintaining a household while living alone or with nonrelatives only.
Nonfarm Self-employment Net Income. The term is defined as net money income (gross receipts minus expenses) from an individual's own business, professional enterprise, or partnership. Gross receipts include the value of all goods sold and services rendered. Expenses include costs of goods purchased, rent, heat, light, power, depreciation charges, wages and salaries paid, business taxes (not personal income taxes), etc. In general, inventory changes are considered in determining net income; replies based on income tax returns or other official records do reflect inventory changes; however, when values of inventory changes are not reported, net income figures exclusive of inventory changes are accepted. The value of saleable merchandise consumed by the proprietors of retail stores is not included as part of net income.
Nonworker. A person who did not do any work in the calendar year preceding the survey.
Nonrelative of Householder With No Own Relatives in Household. A nonrelative of the householder who has no relative(s) of his own in the household. This category includes such nonrelatives as a ward, a lodger, a servant, or a hired hand, who has no relatives of his own living with him in the household.
Nonrelative of Householder With Own Relatives (Including Spouse) in Household. Any household member who is not related to the householder but has relatives of his own in the household; for example, a lodger, his spouse, and their son.
Other Relative of Householder. Any relative of the householder other than his spouse, child (including natural, adopted, foster, or step child), sibling, or parent; for example, grandson, daughter-in-law, etc.
Own Child. A child related by birth, marriage, or adoption to the family householder.
Part-Time, Economic Reasons. The item includes slack work, material shortages, repairs to plant or equipment, start or termination of job during the week, and inability to find full-time work. ( See also Full-Time Worker.)
Part-Time Other Reasons. The item includes labor dispute, bad weather, own illness, vacation, demands of home housework, school, no desire for full-time work, and full-time worker only during peak season.
Part-Time Work. Persons who work between 1 and 34 hours are designated as working ``part-time'' in the current job held during the reference week. For the March supplement, a person is classified as having worked part-time during the preceding calendar year if he worked less than 35 hours per week in a majority of the weeks in which he worked during the year. Conversely, he is classified as having worked full-time if he worked 35 hours or more per week during a majority of the weeks in which he worked.
Part-Year Work. Part-year work is classified as less than 50 weeks' work.
Pension Plan. The pension plan question on the March CPS attempted to identify if pension plan coverage was available through an employer or union and if the employee was included. This information was collected for civilian persons 15 years old and over who worked during the previous calendar year.
Population Coverage. Population coverage includes the civilian population of the United States plus approximately 820,000 members of the Armed Forces in the United States living off post or with their families on post but excludes all other members of the Armed Forces. This file excludes inmates of institutions. The labor force and work experience data are not collected for Armed Forces members.
Poverty. In this file, families and unrelated individuals are classified as being above or below the poverty level using a poverty index adopted by a Federal Interagency Committee in 1969 and slightly modified in 1981.
The modified index provides a range of income cutoffs or ``poverty thresholds'' adjusted to take into account family size, number of children, and age of the family householder or unrelated individual; prior to 1981, adjustments were also made on the basis of farm-nonfarm residence and sex of the householder. The impact of these revisions on the poverty estimates is minimal at the national level. The poverty cutoffs are updated every year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. The average poverty threshold for a family of four was $12,091 in 1985. For a detailed explanation of the poverty definition, see Current Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 154, Money Income and Poverty Status of Persons in the United States: 1988.
Public Assistance. ( See Income.)
Public or Other Subsidized Housing. Participation in public housing is determined by two factors: program eligibility and the availability of housing. Income standards for initial and continuing occupancy vary by local housing authority, although the limits are constrained by Federal guidelines. Rental charges, which, in turn, define net benefits, are set by a Federal statute not to exceed 30 percent of net monthly money income. A recipient unit can either be a family of two or more related persons or an individual who is handicapped, elderly, or displaced by urban renewal or natural disaster.
There are some programs through which housing assistance is provided to low-income families and individuals living in public or privately owned dwellings. Two of the more common types of programs in which Federal, State, and local funds are used to subsidize private sector housing are rent supplement and interest reduction plans. Under a rent supplement plan the difference between the ``fair market'' rent and the rent charged to the tenant is paid to the owner by a government agency. Under an interest reduction program the amount of interest paid on the mortgage by the owner is reduced so that subsequent savings can be passed along to low income tenants in the form of lower rent charges.
There were two questions dealing with public and low cost housing on the March CPS supplement questionnaire. The first question identifies residence in a housing unit owned by a public agency. The second question identifies beneficiaries who were not living in public housing projects, but who were paying lower rent due to a government subsidy. These questions differ from other questions covering noncash benefits in that they establish current recipiency status in March of the current year rather than recipiency status during the previous year.
Race. The population is divided into five groups on the basis of race: White, Black, American Indian/Aleut Eskimo, Asian or Pacific Islander and Other races beginning with March 1989. The last category includes any other race except the four mentioned. In most of the published tables, ``Other Races'' are shown in total population.
Reentrants. Persons who previously worked at a full-time job lasting two weeks or longer but who are out of the labor force prior to beginning to look for work.
Related Children. Related children in a family include own children and all other children in the household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. For each type of family unit identified in the CPS, the count of own children under 18 years old is limited to single (never married) children; however, ``own children under 25'' and ``own children of any age,'' include all children regardless of marital status. The totals include never-married children living away from home in college dormitories.
Related Subfamily. A related subfamily is a married couple with or without children, or one parent with one or more own single (never married) children under 18 years old, living in a household and related to, but not including, the householder or spouse. The most common example of a related subfamily is a young married couple sharing the home of the husband's or wife's parents. The number of related subfamilies is not included in the number of families.
School. A person who spent most of his time during the survey week attending any kind of public or private school, including trade or vocational schools in which students receive no compensation in money or kind.
School Lunches. The National School Lunch Program is designed to assist States in providing a school lunch for all children at moderate cost. The National School Lunch Act of 1946 was further amended in 1970 to provide free and reduced-price school lunches for children of needy families. The program is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through State educational agencies or through regional USDA nutrition services for nonprofit private schools. The program is funded by a combination of Federal funds and matching State funds.
All students eating lunches prepared at participating schools pay less than the total cost of the lunches. Some students pay the ``full established'' price for lunch (which itself is subsidized) while others pay a ``reduced'' price for lunch, and still others receive a ``free'' lunch. Program regulations require students receiving free lunches to live in households with incomes below 125 percent of the official poverty level. Those students receiving a reduced-price school lunch (10 to 20 cents per meal) live in households with incomes between 125 percent and 195 percent of the official poverty level. The data in this file, however, do not distinguish between recipiency of free and reduced-price school lunches.
The questions on the March CPS provide a very limited amount of data for the school lunch program. Questions concerning the school lunch program were designed to identify the number of members 5 to 18 years old in households who ``usually'' ate a hot lunch. This defined the universe of household members usually receiving this noncash benefit. This was followed by a question to identify the number of members receiving free or reduced price lunches.
Self-Employed. Self-employed persons are those who work for profit or fees in their own business, profession or trade, or operate a farm.
Stretches of Unemployment. A continuous stretch is one that is not interrupted by the person getting a job or leaving the labor market to go to school, to keep house, etc. A period of two weeks or more during which a person is employed or ceased looking for work is considered to break the continuity of the period of seeking work.
Topcode. For confidentiality purposes, usual hourly earnings from the current job and earnings from the longest job are topcoded, i.e., cut off at a particular amount.
Refer to Appendix F for an explanation and topcode values of hourly earnings from the current job. Earnings from the longest job are collected during enumeration; however, the amount is topcoded on the public use file at $150,000. (See Differences Between 1995 and 1996 Files for more information.)
From the supplement, total person's income is the sum of the amounts from the individual income types; total family income is the sum of the total persons income for each family member; total household income is the sum of the total income for each person in the household.
Total Money Income. The term is defined as the arithmetic sum of money wages and salaries, net income from self-employment, and income other than earnings. The total income of a household is the arithmetic sum of the amounts received by all income recipients in the household.
Unable to Work. A person is classified as unable to work because of long-term physical or mental illness, lasting six months or longer.
Unemployed. ( See Labor Force.)
Unemployment Compensation. ( See Income.)
Unpaid Family Workers. Unpaid family workers are persons working without pay for 15 hours a week or more on a farm or in a business operated by a member of the household to whom they are related by birth or marriage.
Unrelated Individuals. Unrelated individuals are persons of any age (other than inmates of institutions) who are not living with any relatives. An unrelated individual may be (1) a nonfamily householder living alone or with nonrelatives only, (2) a roomer, boarder, or resident employee with no relatives in the household, or (3) a group quarters member who has no relatives living with him/her. Thus, a widow who occupies her house alone or with one or more other persons not related to her, a roomer not related to anyone else in the housing unit, a maid living as a member of her employer's household but with no relatives in the household, and a resident staff member in a hospital living apart from any relatives are all examples of unrelated individuals.
Unrelated Subfamily. An unrelated subfamily is a family that does not include among its members the householder and relatives of the householder. Members of unrelated subfamilies may include persons such as guests, roomers, boarders, or resident employees and their relatives living in a household. The number of unrelated subfamily members is included in the number of household members but is not included in the count of family members.
Persons living with relatives in group quarters were formerly considered as members of families. However, the number of such unrelated subfamilies is so small that persons in these unrelated subfamilies are included in the count of secondary individuals.
Veteran Status. If a person served at any time during the four major wars of this century, the code for the most recent wartime service is entered. The following codes are used:
0 Children under 15
1 Vietnam era
2 Korean
3 WWI
4 WWII
5 Other Service
6 Nonveteran
Wage and Salary Workers. Wage and salary workers receive wages, salary, commission, tips, or pay in kind from a private employer or from a governmental unit. Also included are persons who are self-employed in an incorporated business. ( See income.)
Weeks Worked in the Income Year. Persons are classified according to the number of different weeks, during the preceding calendar year, in which they did any civilian work for pay or profit (including paid vacations and sick leave) or worked without pay on a family-operated farm or business.
Workers. ( See Labor Force--Employed.)
Work Experience. Includes those persons who during the preceding calendar year did any work for pay or profit or worked without pay on a family-operated farm or business at any time during the year, on a part-time or full-time basis.
Year-Round Full-Time Worker. A year-round full-time worker is one who usually worked 35 hours or more per week for 50 weeks or more during the preceding calendar year.
GLOSSARY
Geographic Concepts
Geographic Division. An area composed of contiguous States, with Alaska and Hawaii also included in one of the divisions. (A State is one of the 51 major political units in the United States.) The nine geographic divisions have been largely unchanged for the presentation of summary statistics since the 1910 census.
Regions. There are four regions: Northeast, Midwest (formerly North Central),1 West, and South. States and divisions within regions are presented below.
NORTHEAST REGION
New England Division Middle Atlantic Division
Connecticut New Jersey Maine New York Massachusetts Pennsylvania New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont
MIDWEST REGION
East North Central Division West North Central Division
Illinois Iowa Indiana Kansas Michigan Minnesota Ohio Missouri Wisconsin Nebraska North Dakota South Dakota
_________
1. The Midwest Region was designated as the North Central Region until June 1964.
WEST REGION
Mountain Division Pacific Division
Arizona Alaska Colorado California Idaho Hawaii Montana Oregon Nevada Washington Utah Wyoming New Mexico
SOUTH REGION
East South Central Division West South Central Division
Alabama Arkansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Oklahoma Tennessee Texas
South Atlantic Division
Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Maryland North Carolina South Carolina Virginia West Virginia
Annual Demographic Survey (March CPS Supplement) 1997 Data Page
CPS Main Page
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Author: Greg Weyland-Census/DSD/CPSB
Contact: (ask.census.gov) CPS Help-Census/DSD/CPSB
Last revised: September 25, 2003
URL: http://www.bls.census.gov/cps/ads/1996/sglosary.htm