Can I assume the people with wkswork1 & wkswork2 entries of N/A did not work in the previous year?

USA
1

I would like to include workers in my sample who did not work in the previous year. However, the 0 entry for wkswork1 and wkswork2 variables indicates an N/A entry. Is there a way that I can identify people who actually did not work in the previous year?

2

You could use WKSWORK1 or WKSWORK2 to identify people who didn’t work last year. You’ll need to be careful because the universe for these variables include only persons who did not work last year. So, as long as you’ve already excluded people under the age of 16 from your dataset, the resulting individuals with WKSWORK1 or WKSWORK2 ==0 would be people who didn’t work last year. Perhaps an easier method is to use one of the following options: In IPUMS USA you can use the WORKEDYR variable, which identifies if an individual worked last year. In IPUMS CPS you can use the WORKLYvariable.

I hope this is helpful. Let us know if you have any additional questions.

1 Like
3

Thank you Jeff. I really appreciate your help.