I want to produce a monthly full-time vs. part-time rate series with monthly CPS base samples. I noticed that the full-time employment rate appears surprisingly low and part-time employment rate appears surprisingly high in Sep. 2015. A closer examination reveals that an unusual number of workers reported to be on holiday; see table below:
Sep. 2015
In comparison, the normal range for number of workers reporting to be holiday is anywhere between 0 and 2000. As examples, in Aug. & Oct. 2015, 22 and 1,822 workers reported to be on holiday, respectively.
Question:
- Could this be a coding error in the data cleaning process?
- If not coding error, are you aware of events that could explain this pattern?
Thanks!