# Variable on job contract type (temporary or permanent) in IPUMS-USA or IPUMS-CPS?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/variable-on-job-contract-type-temporary-or-permanent-in-ipums-usa-or-ipums-cps/513>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [April 29, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/variable-on-job-contract-type-temporary-or-permanent-in-ipums-usa-or-ipums-cps/513 "2014-04-29T20:59:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Pelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ea5d25/32.png) [@Pelin](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Pelin)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2014, 8:59pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/variable-on-job-contract-type-temporary-or-permanent-in-ipums-usa-or-ipums-cps/513/1 "2014-04-29T20:59:00Z")

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I am looking for a variable, which gives information about whether the work contract of employees (if they had one) was temporary (limited duration) or permanent (unlimited in time)for the period 2007-2012. There seems to be some information somewhere because I found papers referring to IPUMS-CPS for this variable. I am particularly interested in IPUMS-USA.

Thank you in advance

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**Author:** ![grover](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/grover/32/5_2.png) [@grover](https://forum.ipums.org/u/grover)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/variable-on-job-contract-type-temporary-or-permanent-in-ipums-usa-or-ipums-cps/513/2 "2014-05-07T14:51:00Z")

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I am afraid there is no IPUMS-USA variable that directly measures temporary worker status. In IPUMS-CPS, variables such as [WHYPTLWK](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/WHYPTLWK/#codes_section) (why part-time last week) and [WHYPTLY](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/WHYPTLY/#codes_section) (why part-time last year) include the categories like “seasonal work” and “slack work”, and the IPUMS-CPS variable [WHYUNEMP](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/WHYUNEMP/#description_section) (why unemployed) includes the category “Temporary job ended”. However, these variables do not have equivalents in IPUMS-USA. There may be a way to leverage the information available in IPUMS-USA (such as weeks and hours worked) into an approximation of temporary work status, but I am not aware of any agreed upon method. You could try looking at research that utilizes the ACS or Census (which IPUMS-USA is based on) and see if other researchers have attempted such an approximation.

I hope this helps.