ESR vs COW

Hi All,

As a means of a data check as I'm not very familiar with the employment variables I created an unweighted crosstabulation of the variables Class of worker (COW) and Employment Status Recode (ESR) in the Rhode Island 2013 1-year persons PUMS file.

When I do this I find many cases that fall into a category where Employment Status Recode (ESR) = 6 - not in the labor force AND Class of Worker (COW) = 1 - Employee of a private for-profit company or business, or of an individual, for wages, salary, or commissions

I understand that in the COW variable Not in the labor force is listed as someone who has not been in labor force for 5 years or longer. So why are the cases listed as ESR = 6 instead of ESR = 2 or 5 which are civilian/armed forces job but not currently at work?

I'm clearly missing something here - anyone have any advice?

Thanks! Jess