# Employment Status Codes (EMPSTAT) Code Question

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/employment-status-codes-empstat-code-question/1657>\
**Category:** CPS\
**Created:** [March 21, 2017, 8:34pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/employment-status-codes-empstat-code-question/1657 "2017-03-21T20:34:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![Ivan\_Strahof](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/ivan_strahof/32/626_2.png) [@Ivan\_Strahof](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Ivan_Strahof)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/employment-status-codes-empstat-code-question/1657/4 "2022-10-04T19:52:19Z")

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[WHYUNEMP](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/WHYUNEMP#codes_section) (reason for unemployment) should give you the data that you’re looking for on job searching. While temporarily laid off workers are considered unemployed in [EMPSTAT](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/EMPSTAT#description_section) regardless of whether they were searching for a job, WHYUNEMP distinguishes between unemployed respondents who were on temporary layoff (Job loser/ on layoff) and those who were unemployed and looking for work (codes 2-6). You may also be interested in the unharmonized variable [UH\_LK\_B1](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/UH_LK_B1#codes_section), which further distinguishes between respondents who were and were not searching for work. [This forum post](https://forum.ipums.org/t/whyunemp-temporary-layoff/3825) goes into further detail on these variables and explains how definitions used to construct them have changed over time.

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