March 1998 CPS data has been successfully converted to the database fields that can be used by TRIM3, and the TRIM Dictionary has been updated to reflect the most recent changes. This memo details differences in the data as compared with that for the preceding year.

The following new fields have been imputed by Population Studies researchers.

The March 1998 CPS also contained a bonus, two new migration codes, MigrationReasonMoved and MigrationAllocReasonMoved, which we now have in our TRIM3 database. Check our on-line dictionary for codes. Corrections were also made by Census to the previous year (1997) class of worker code and dependent earned income measures.

The following fields have been dropped from the CPS, or were previously coded by UI from fields that have been dropped from the survey and, thus, are not available for the 1997 data year.

With replicate records included, SampleHoursWorked has 21,156 values that are less than zero--18,082 records contain values of -1 and 3,074 records contain values of -4.

Due to lack of reliability, three formerly computed fields, SupplementalUnemployment , LastAllocatedSupplementalUnemp and UnionUnemploymentBenefits have been discontinued.

HealthCurrentCondition, flawed on the initial release of the March 1998 CPS, has been corrected. It now has a range of 1-5 and a distribution that approximates that of the 1996 data.

Several income measures show increases beyond that which could be attributed to inflation, measures that include CapitalGains, Interest, Dividends, MilitaryRetirement, WorkersCompensation, BusinessSelfEmployment, LastPrimaryBusinessSelfEmp, and LastOtherWageOrSalary.

There appear to be fewer imputations of many of the health insurance fields.

The current file offers further evidence of decreased public assistance, apparent in such fields as FoodStampsMonths, FoodStampsValue, NumberFoodStampsRecipients, NutritionNumFreeLunchRecipients, LastPublicAssistanceMonths, OtherPublicAssistance, LastPublicAssistanceAmount, and AFDC.