CPS Monthly Supplements

Happy New Year! Thanks to the IPUMS team for releasing the basic monthly data so promptly. Is there an explanation for why it takes so long to get the monthly supplements from BLS? Specifically, the October would provide really important info on educational activities during COVID.

The IPUMS CPS team strives to release supplement data as quickly as possible once it is released by the Census Bureau. We do not receive data in advance of its public release. Once the data has been released, it takes some time to harmonize the new data and integrate it into IPUMS CPS. Depending on the extent of changes from previous years, the lag time can vary. If you have urgent need of the data between the time it is released by the Census Bureau and when it is integrated into IPUMS, you can merge the raw microdata files with IPUMS basic monthly files using the process described in this blog post.

You can find CPS supplement data on the Census Bureau website here. The October supplement microdata is available here. You will see that the data has not yet been released for 2020. There is no published release schedule for the supplement microdata that we are aware of.