# Missing months for select states

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/missing-months-for-select-states/4372>\
**Category:** CPS\
**Created:** [November 4, 2021, 12:10am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/missing-months-for-select-states/4372 "2021-11-04T00:10:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lauren\_Russell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9dc877/32.png) [@Lauren\_Russell](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Lauren_Russell)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 12:10am UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/missing-months-for-select-states/4372/1 "2021-11-04T00:10:24Z")

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I downloaded all of the monthly data for 1990 and 1991 for all states to calculate state-year unemployment rates. However, when I collapse my dataset, I notice that not all states have data for all months. For example, my extract has no Alabama data for February 1977. Does anyone know what I’m doing wrong?

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**Author:** ![Grace\_Cooper](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/grace_cooper/32/376_2.png) [@Grace\_Cooper](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Grace_Cooper)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 3:32pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/missing-months-for-select-states/4372/2 "2021-11-05T15:32:53Z")

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In some months before 1978, not all states were identifiable. The ability to identify records within states or not is largely influenced by the sample sizes (which were [relatively small](https://cps.ipums.org/cps/sample_sizes_all.shtml) in 1976 and 1977) due to confidentiality restrictions on public use data. You can see which states are identified by month in the [codes tab for STATEFIP](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/STATEFIP#codes_section) (make sure to have selected the samples you are interested in first). For more discussion on this, see the [comparability tab for STATEFIP](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/STATEFIP#comparability_section).