How are tribal government employees classified on CLASSWKRD in the ACS?
I don’t have a clear answer for this, but can share what I know about documentation availability and ideas for getting at this available data.
CLASSWKR(D) is derived from a question posed directly to respondents and I am not aware of any guidance for tribal government employees for this variable. As per the Editing Procedures tab on CLASSWKR, I suspect that direct responses may be modified based on the occupation and industry information provided, but am also not aware of explicit documentation for the circumstance of tribal government employees.
There is a detailed (six-digit) NAICS code for American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) tribal government (92115); this level of detail is not included in the public use microdata files available through IPUMS USA, but this NAICS code is associated with the Census industry codes 9370 (Executive offices and legislative bodies) and 9470 (Justice, public order, and safety activities) (see the Excel and CSV downloads on the 2018-forward industry codes page for the full code list).
I looked at the CLASSWKRD frequencies for these two industry codes in 2018 and 2019 ACS data (there was a change in the Census industry codes in 2018) in general, and then restricting to persons who report AIAN as their race and whose household is located in a PUMA that contains any Census block designated as an American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian homeland area (HOMELAND) (see below for output). These restrictions are definitely an imperfect way of trying to narrow in on tribal government employees (you could certainly further restrict this to look at certain geographic areas that may be more clearly associated with tribal governments and/or place of work variables). By either measure the majority of persons in these occupation codes are defined as local government workers, though the balance between state and federal changes between the two tabulations.
CLASSWKRD by IND (for IND codes 9370 and 9470), 2018-2019 ACS.
CLASSWKRD by IND (for IND codes 9370 and 9470) for persons who report AIAN as their race and whose PUMA of residence includes at least one Census block designated as an American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian homeland area, 2018-2019 ACS.
I hope this helps. You might consider checking/asking the ACS data users forum or contacting the Census Bureau directly in hopes of a more definitive answer.
Thanks! This is very useful. I really appreciate your help.
1 Like