Welcome! This ReadMe file is a great beginning point to understanding what is what! Please contact the admins with any questions!
This repo contains the code to estimate key statistics from the ACS that help describe the composition of the immigrant low wage workforce. It produces a spreadsheet with multiple sheets which form the tables that are used later to make the graphs according to the publication requirements. Below are the details on the data requirments and output.
The data: for any given year T, we pull the ACS 1-year estimates manually from IPUMS. We are working to make integrate the IPUMS API into this, but we haven't gotten that far yet. The most recent year of data available is for 2022.
Code and software: we work on Stata. This may change if we ever get the API running. Could switch to R if that works better. There are 2 dofiles that comprise the data build and analysis:
- Cleaning and sample selection ACS: starting from a renamed IPUMS data pull (note because IPUMS downloads the data like... usa_000N, we rename before uploading as raw data), this file creates all the key variables needed for the analysis. In particular, this is where the definition of low wage worker comes. In essence, we define a low wage worker as someone receiving two-thirds the national median wage of prime-age workers, defined as workers 25 to 54.
- Analysis: based on the file produced in the previous dofile, we create each sheet of the spreadsheet, but leave out programming each individual graph. That is later done by hand. Here is a point where someone with better coding skills can pick up to automate the graph making piece on like R.
Once you successfully run this code, you will notice that the labels for things like occupations are not coded in, rather we use the OCC codes available on IPUMS. Detailed occupational codes since 2018 can be found here here. Would appreciate any thoughts on how to automate this.
For now, we only dump the files we download from IPUMS. We are working on automating this piece so everything is more streamlined. Note that the variables which are repeated except for an added "D" just mean the variable is the same but more granular, that is with greater level of detail. Right now, make sure you download at minimum the following:
Variable type:
- P = Person level
- H = Household level
Type Variable Label
- H YEAR Census year
- H MULTYEAR Actual year of survey, multi-year ACS/PRCS
- H SAMPLE IPUMS sample identifier
- H SERIAL Household serial number
- H CBSERIAL Original Census Bureau household serial number
- H HHWT Household weight
- H HHTYPE Household Type
- H CLUSTER Household cluster for variance estimation
- H ADJUST Adjustment factor, ACS/PRCS
- H CPI99 CPI-U adjustment factor to 1999 dollars
- H REGION Census region and division
- H STATEFIP State (FIPS code)
- H COUNTYFIP County (FIPS code)
- H DENSITY Population-weighted density of PUMA
- H METRO Metropolitan status
- H CITY City
- H PUMA Public Use Microdata Area
- H STRATA Household strata for variance estimation
- H HOMELAND American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian homeland area
- H GQ Group quarters status
- H FARM Farm status
- H HHINCOME Total household income
- H LINGISOL Linguistic isolation
- P PERNUM Person number in sample unit
- P PERWT Person weight
- P RELATE (general) Relationship to household head [general version]
- P RELATED (detailed) Relationship to household head [detailed version]
- P SEX Sex
- P AGE Age
- P MARST Marital status
- P RACE (general) Race [general version]
- P RACED (detailed) Race [detailed version]
- P HISPAN (general) Hispanic origin [general version]
- P HISPAND (detailed) Hispanic origin [detailed version]
- P BPL (general) Birthplace [general version]
- P BPLD (detailed) Birthplace [detailed version]
- P ANCESTR1 (general) Ancestry, first response [general version]
- P ANCESTR1D (detailed) Ancestry, first response [detailed version]
- P ANCESTR2 (general) Ancestry, second response [general version]
- P ANCESTR2D (detailed) Ancestry, second response [detailed version]
- P CITIZEN Citizenship status
- P YRNATUR Year naturalized
- P YRIMMIG Year of immigration
- P YRSUSA1 Years in the United States
- P YRSUSA2 Years in the United States, intervalled
- P LANGUAGE (general) Language spoken [general version]
- P LANGUAGED (detailed) Language spoken [detailed version]
- P SPEAKENG Speaks English
- P EDUC (general) Educational attainment [general version]
- P EDUCD (detailed) Educational attainment [detailed version]
- P DEGFIELD (general) Field of degree [general version]
- P DEGFIELDD (detailed) Field of degree [detailed version]
- P DEGFIELD2 (general) Field of degree (2) [general version]
- P DEGFIELD2D (detailed) Field of degree (2) [detailed version]
- P EMPSTAT (general) Employment status [general version]
- P EMPSTATD (detailed) Employment status [detailed version]
- P LABFORCE Labor force status
- P CLASSWKR (general) Class of worker [general version]
- P CLASSWKRD (detailed) Class of worker [detailed version]
- P OCC Occupation
- P IND Industry
- P WKSWORK1 Weeks worked last year
- P UHRSWORK Usual hours worked per week
- P WRKLSTWK Worked last week
- P WORKEDYR Worked last year
- P INCTOT Total personal
- P INCWAGE Wage and salary income
- P INCEARN Total personal earned income
- P POVERTY Poverty status