ESR vs COW

Hi Jess,

My guess is that if you're getting people with ESR=6 and COW = 1, then these are people who recently unemployed or separated from the labor force (

I did some analyses with TX PUMS data on the last job of those who are now unemployed (ESR = 3), but the OCCP and SOCP variables are the current occupation for those who are employed/the last occupation for those who are currently unemployed/NILF. COW is similar in that it's more the sector/employer type of current/last job rather than current employment status. OCCP = 9920 are those who last worked 5 or more years ago, but you can still get information on those who last worked more recently than 5 years ago. I would think it's the same for COW.

Here's my understanding of the two variables:

ESR (Employment status recode) - describing the person.

b .N/A (less than 16 years old)
1 .Civilian employed, at work
2 .Civilian employed, with a job but not at work - this could be someone like a teacher who receives the survey during the summer time, someone out on maternity leave, or someone who works with some kind of agency who constantly have long project-based work with breaks in between projects (actors, construction workers, writers, etc.). These people have jobs, just not currently "at work"

3 .Unemployed - this is someone who is actively looking for a job

4 .Armed forces, at work
5 .Armed forces, with a job but not at work - similar to esr=2, currently on leave but are in the armed forces

6 .Not in labor force - this is the retirees, students, homemakers, people not actively looking for work.

COW (Class of worker) - describing the relationship to the employer.

b .N/A (less than 16 years old/NILF who last worked more than 5 years ago or never worked)
1 .Employee of a private for-profit company or business, or of an individual, for wages, salary, or commissions
2 .Employee of a private not-for-profit, tax-exempt, or charitable organization
3 .Local government employee (city, county, etc.)
4 .State government employee
5 .Federal government employee
6 .Self-employed in own not incorporated business, professional practice, or farm
7 .Self-employed in own incorporated business, professional practice or farm
8 .Working without pay in family business or farm
9 .Unemployed and last worked 5 years ago or earlier or never worked

Hopefully this is helpful!
-Diana

[Updated on 4/16/2015 1:41 PM]

Thanks, Diana. This is helpful. I think that where my confusion lies is that the definition of Not in the labor Force appears to be different in ESR from COW and that they are fundamentally looking at different things.

For what it's worth the ESR=Unemployed and COW=1 is 313 unweighted cases whereas the ESR=6 and COW=1 is 629 unweighted cases out of 6759. (Small counts compared to TX I'm sure, but this is RI :))

Have you worked with these questions at all? Seem to be reasons for unemployment.
NWLA
NWAB
NWAV
NWLK
NWRE

[Updated on 4/16/2015 3:18 PM]