ACS 2018 5-year: class of worker

USA
1

I was looking for a variable that indicates “class of worker” in the ACS 2018 5-year dataset from the IPUMS USA on IPUMS.com. Still, I couldn’t find any variable that matches the nine categories as Census Bureau provided. I only saw several variables (such as UCLASSWK, RCLSSWR, CLASS6YR) that collapsed nine categories into fewer categories, but, unfortunately, they are not available for the ACS 2018 5-year data.

Could you help me to find the variable? Or is IPUMS still processing the variable that will be released later? Thank you.

The following code is the nine categories mentioned in PUMS_Data_Dictionary_2014-2018.pdf
COW Class of worker
b .Not in universe (less than 16 years old/NILF who last worked .more than 5 years ago or never worked)
1 .Employee of a private for-profit company or business, or of an individual, for wages, salary, or commissions
2 .Employee of a private not-for-profit, tax-exempt, or .charitable organization
3 .Local government employee (city, county, etc.)
4 .State government employee
5 .Federal government employee
6 .Self-employed in own not incorporated business, professional .practice, or farm
7 .Self-employed in own incorporated business, professional .practice or farm
8 .Working without pay in family business or farm
9 .Unemployed and last worked 5 years ago or earlier or never .worked

2

IPUMS harmonizes variables across time without losing detail; prioritizing comparability over time means that some variables may not align exactly with the original variables from which they are created, but the information contained in these variables is available through IPUMS. The IPUMS variable CLASSWKR has the relevant information you are looking for in the 2018 5-year ACS. Please note that you will need to choose “Detailed codes” instead of “General codes” to see the full set of response categories available for this variable. The detailed version of the codes includes the categories you mentioned with one slight exception. The universe for the IPUMS variable CLASSWKR is “Persons age 16+ who had worked within the past 5 years” for ACS/PRCS samples. This combines the not in universe code that you list explicitly with persons who are unemployed; however, you may use LABFORCE to differentiate between unemployed versus not in the labor force for persons who are out of universe for CLASSWKR.

3

Yes, the detailed codes are what I need. I didn’t notice that option before. Thank you very much for the information.