NLSY79

Introduction

Data releases since 2018 have included a created variable depicting the Highest Grade Ever Completed (HGC_EVER), found in the KEY VARIABLES area of interest. This XRND variable incorporates information through the respondent's most recent interview and will be updated each round. The program that created this variable is accessible through a link at the end of this appendix.

The NLSY79 unemployment rate variables are constructed using state and area labor force data from the May publication of Employment and Earnings for the month of March of each survey year. Employment and Earnings is published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics and lists the civilian labor force and number of unemployed persons for every state and selected metropolitan areas.

• 1979-1996 Urban-Rural Residence
• 1998-2006 Urban-Rural Residence
• 2008-2020 Urban-Rural Residence
• SMSA-Central City/Principal Variables
  
  • 1979-1998 SMSA-Central City Variables
  • 2000-2002 SMSA-Central City Residence
  • 2004-2020 CBSA-Principal City Residence

• File Contents
• 1982 Data Quality Check and 1986-1990 Revisions
• 1994 Data Quality Check
• 1993 Variable Construction
• 1979-2020 Relationship History Variables
• 2012 Expansion of Marital Transition Variables
• 2014 Data Quality Check
• 2016 Historical Reconciliation for Females

Included in the 1979 and 1982 surveys is a measure of perceived job characteristics developed by Sims, Szilagyi, and Keller.¹ This scale, the Job Characteristics Index (JCI), is an extension of the work first begun by Turner and Lawrence in 1965.² The JCI was preceded by an instrument developed by Hackman and Oldham known as the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS),³ whose dimensions are also incorporated in the JCI, but in a simpler format.

Included in the 1979 through 1982 NLSY79 is a measure of job satisfaction with econometric properties that make it better than the global job satisfaction measure also included in the surveys. The job satisfaction measure is a seven-item scale that has greater variance than the global satisfaction measure. The scale has been tested previously on broad cross-sections of national data.

This appendix provides the creation details for the Total Net Family Income created variables. Also provided is information on the Family Poverty Status and Family Poverty Level Variables.

Employment Status Recode (ESR) is a standard measure of the respondent's main labor force activity during the survey week (Sunday through Saturday preceding the interview date). What follows is a PL/I adaptation of a Fortran program used by the Census Bureau to create ESR for 1979-1993, for 1994 through 1998, an SPSS adaptation of the decision rules provided by the Census Bureau to create MLR using the new CAPI-generated CPS data, and for 2006, a SAS adaptation of these rules.

• Religion Codes
• Protestant Denomination Codes for R6558., R6583., R6586., R6613., R6616.

Religion Codes

PUBLICATION 5-1: JUNE 15, 1970, SPECIFICATIONS FOR STATES AND OUTLYING AREAS OF THE UNITED STATES

FIPS 5-1 Supersedes FIPS 5 November 1, 1963