CPS Outgoing Rotation Group Problems

Matching problems have been encountered with the 1994 and 1995 ORG files.

If users want to match these data with their monthly counter-part data (e.g., match the March file records to the appropriate ORG records) they can not match them on the 12-digit hhidnumber alone; for the 1994 and 1995 data these are unique only within the state. Therefore any matching needs to go like this: hhidnum lineno state

Our informant also adds that according to CPS for month to month matching starting with '94 the hhidnum, lineno, and state should be all that is needed to match each observation. However, it is still a good idea to check to make sure sex, race, education, and age (all with appropriate allowances for growth) are consistent for each observation.

Users may also want to consider using the data as made available in STATA format by NBER.

As reported by Julie Whittaker after talking with the CPS person at BLS.