DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04559.v1
title: Current Population Survey: Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement Survey, 2006
title: Version 1

description: This data collection is comprised of data from the 2006 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), and is a part of the Current Population Survey (CPS) Series. The Census Bureau conducts the ASEC (known as the Annual Demographic File prior to 2003) over a three-month period, in February, March, and April, with most of the data collected in the month of March. The ASEC uses two sets of survey questions, the basic CPS and a set of supplemental questions.The CPS, administered monthly, is a labor force survey providing current estimates of the economic status and activities of the population of the United States. Specifically, the CPS provides estimates of total employment (both farm and nonfarm), nonfarm self-employed persons, domestics, and unpaid helpers in nonfarm family enterprises, wage and salaried employees, and estimates of total unemployment.In addition to the basic CPS questions, respondents were asked questions from the ASEC, which provides supplemental data on poverty, geographic mobility/migration, and work experience. Comprehensive work experience information was given on the employment status, occupation, and industry of persons aged 15 and over. Additional data for persons aged 15 and older were available concerning weeks worked and hours per week worked, reason not working full time, total income and supplemental income components. Additional data are included that cover training and assistance received under welfare reform programs such as job readiness training, child care services, or job skill training. Data covering nine noncash income sources: food stamps, school lunch program, employer-provided group health insurance plan, employer-provided pension plan, personal health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, CHAMPUS or military health care, and energy assistance are also included.Demographic variables include age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, veteran status, educational attainment, occupation, and income. Data on employment and income refer to the previous calendar year, although demographic data refer to the time of the survey.The original ASEC data provided by the Census Bureau are distributed in a hierarchical file structure, with three record types present: Household, Family, and Person. The ASEC is designed to be a multistage stratified sample of housing units, where the hierarchical file structure can be thought of as a person within a family within a household unit. Here the main unit of analysis is the household unit. For ease of analysis at the person-level, ICPSR created a rectangular file structure that contains a record for every person with the respective Household and Family variables prepended to the Person variables. Part 1 contains the rectangular data file and Part 2 contains the original hierarchical data file.
description: The data contain five weight variables: Basic CPS earnings weight, A_ERNLWT; Basic CPS final weight, A_FNLWGT; March supplement Household weight, HSUP_WGT; March supplement Family weight, FSUP_WGT; ASEC supplement Person weight, MARSUPWT; Users are strongly encouraged to refer to the User Guide for detailed information on how to use the weights, as well as how they were derived.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Standardized missing values.; Created online analysis version with question text.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Rectangular Data 
 DS2: Hierarchical Data
description: Current Population Survey Series
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI), computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) 
ICPSR used syntax created by Jean Roth and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to read in the data for Part 1.
The data in Part 2 are distributed exactly as they arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed the data in Part 2. Consistency checks were performed by the principal investigators. Users should contact the principal investigators if further information is desired about the hierarchical file.
In the hierarchical dataset, there are three record types: Household, with 143 variables, Family, with 76 variables, and Person, with 477 variables. The hierarchical file is sorted by Census state code (GESTCEN), then by core-based statistical area (CBSA) code (GTCBSA).
Users are strongly encouraged to read the User Guide, which contains the questionnaire for the supplement, as well as additional technical documentation. Users please note that much of the information in the User Guide and Data Dictionary files which pertain to record layout refer to the hierarchical data file.
Only the Person-level variables are available for use with the SDA (Survey Documentation Analysis) online analysis system.
description: The civilian noninstitutional population of the United States living in housing units, and members of the Armed Forces living in civilian housing units on a military base or in a household not on a military base.
description: A multistage probability sample was used for the housing unit. The sample was based on the results of the decennial Census, with coverage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. More detailed information about the sampling frame can be found in the User Guide.