Verbatim responses to questions such as "What kind of business or industry is this?  What do they make or do?" have been recorded within the Young Adult questionnaire in the Employer Supplements during each year's survey. These verbatims are then coded into various versions of the Census Bureau's industrial classification system which consists of 14 industry groups, representing more than 19,000 industries.

A set of variables, 'Type of Business or Industry Job #1-5,' codes the industry of up to five jobs in which the respondent worked since he or she was last interviewed. 

In 1994, the decision was made to use the 1970 coding frame, which was still in use in the main Youth data, to make the Young Adult data as directly comparable to the mother's data as possible. In addition, the CPS job, defined as the current or most recent primary job of the respondent, was coded using the 1990 coding frame. This pattern of coding was used for the 1996 and 1998 surveys as well.

For the 2000 survey, the 1994-1998 industry verbatims that had previously been classified using only the 1970 coding frame were coded again using the 1990 frame. As of the 2000 release, all industry verbatims, except for father's occupation, had both 1970 and 1990 Census codes available (YA 1970 1990 Census Occ and Ind Codes is a downloadable Word file with these codes).

Beginning in 2002, all jobs were coded using the 2000 Census industry coding frame. Switching to the 2000 coding frame allowed for greater accuracy in industry coding given the changes in job structure over time. Although this represents a disconnect from previous years, crosswalks between the 1990 and 2000 coding frames are available. Beginning in 2004, all industries are coded with the Census 4-digit, NAICS-based codes.

Note: For Census industrial and occupational codes go to NLSY79 Attachment 3.

Comparison to Other NLS Cohorts: Information has been collected in all NLSY79 surveys on the type of industry for all jobs that respondents have worked. Industry is collected each year from NLSY97 respondents for both employee (respondents age 14 or older) and self-employed jobs (respondents age 16 or older) according to the industrial classification system. For the Mature and Young Women, industry has been coded using 1960, 1980, and 1990 systems. The industries of Older and Young Men were recorded using 1960 codes for all years; in the final two Older Men surveys, industry was doublecoded using the 1980 system. For more precise details about the content of each survey, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide using the tabs above for more information.