Hi all, I am looking at the variables “hourwage” and “earnweek”, and returning NA data for all months past March 2023 using the API and R package. I recently pulled this data, and don’t remember it being missing. Is this a bug?
Figured out the issue, new variable is “hourwage2”, thank you!
For post-March 2023 CPS samples, only rounded versions of HOURWAGE and EARNWEEK are available. IPUMS created the variables HOURWAGE2 and EARNWEEK2, which report rounded values of hourly wages and weekly earnings, for previous samples as well to facilitate comparisons across time. Rounding of these variables was implemented by the Census Bureau; IPUMS receives the data already rounded. You can read more about the Census Bureau’s rounding and other disclosure avoidance procedures in this brief paper.