CPS Utilites

CPS Utilites is a commercial product that is designed to give easy access to data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is described at the Bureau of Labor Statistics' website, http://www.bls.census.gov/cps/cpsmain.htm. Although a BLS project, the BLS contracts the work to the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau creates reports based on the survey. At the national level tabulated data from this survey is available at BLS site and at Census Bureau site under various topics in the Census Bureau's A-Z list.

For persons wishing to use the raw data, the public can use Ferret or FTP the files. Look in DataGate to see what methods we provide for person who wish to do their own tabulation.

In addition to the raw files we have a commerical product that simplifies the task of doing extractions. Locate the guide for using CPS Utilities on the EDS web site. Print a copy off (supress the header and footer).

Use DataGate to find how we provide access to the March Demographic Survey using the CPS Utilities interface

Use the March disc for downloading records for 2001 and select the variables:

• marital status
• age
• income

for only those persons who are:

• females
• civilian adults

During the selection process, check the documentation for a least one of the variables.

Download 500 records that meet these criteria and open the file in SPSS.

If you needed this data for 1978, what would you have to do?

Suggest any clarifications that you think the print guide might need. If there are none, place you copy of the guide in rack with other copies of this guide.