05 score value
The Score Value
It is often difficult to know at a glance just how significant an error condition is, relative to the other flagged accounts on the Micro Edit File. To assist in determining error severity, ES2E includes a “SCORE” field, which provides a numeric value to rate the significance of the edit exceptions found for the account. “Severity” is measure that is subject to debate. In this case, the scoring function is determined relative to the fluctuation magnitude in employment and total wages7. The older scoring function has a potential range of about –7 to +76. All negative score values are listed simply as “0.000”. The score field is color-coded to add emphasis to the more significant edit exceptions. A zero score shows in blue. Accounts with a positive score below 10.000 will show the value in turquoise, meaning that it has an average-to-below-average importance. A value from 10.000 to 19.999 appears in pink, denoting a potentially significant error condition, while a score of 20.000 or higher shows up in red, classified as an error that could have profound impact on macro-level or even statewide employment and wage data. Turquoise-colored score values are more likely to be associated with accounts that can be bypassed with an appropriate comment (the “bypass” process is shown below). On the other hand, high-score items will often be questioned by BLS, even though they may be sent on the EQUI with corroborating comment codes.
Note: The scoring method is not a catch-all for serious conditions, since it is predominantly concerned with employment/wage volatility. Although invalid codes and other serious conditions can receive an augmented score, the presence of small, constant employment and wages fades the score. Such critical conditions definitely need to be sought out and corrected at all times.
7 In fact, in 2009-2010, the employment and wage subcommittee discussed this at some length, coming up with a measure that had a four-part score – the employment, the total wages, the average quarterly wages, and the most severe error code. All of these were on a 0-to-100 scale, and the highest would be the account’s score. This was decided on by the iQ sub-committee, which later became the QUEST system.
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