Can you tell me how “unable to work” is coded? Is this exactly equal to disability or ill health as reason they are not in the labor force?
The IPUMS CPS variable EMPSTAT is simply a harmonized version of the CPS source variable PEMLR (major labor force recode). Here is a link to the 2017 ASEC data dictionary. The “NILF, unable to work” code in EMPSTAT stems directly from the “NILF, disabled” in PEMLR.