11 edit pre selection steps
Edit Pre-Selection Steps
1. Pre-solicitation worksites are bypassed (if the current record has a non-zero reporting unit number (RUN) and the MEEI code is ‘4’, it is ineligible for editing).
2. Pending status accounts are bypassed, since they have no bearing on any of the edits.
3. Singles are bypassed in multi-only processing (if the account selection parameter is “M” for multi-families only, any records with an MEEI code of ‘1’, ‘4’, or ‘6’ are not selected).
4. Multi-families are bypassed in singles-only processing (the reverse of #3, singles-only processing disallows any records with an MEEI code of ‘2’, ‘3’, or ‘5’).
5. Inactive accounts with non-zero reported employment or total wages are selected. Normally inactive accounts are to be ignored, but this is one of the conditions that allows them in, since one of the edits flags this specific condition.
6. Inactive accounts with high prior quarter employment are selected. The second exemption for inactive employers—if the establishment had been active in the previous quarter, and had a large employment level, it is accepted for edit processing, since the new/discontinued edits need these accounts.
7. Inactive accounts involved with the current refiling are selected. As the final special case for inactives, this check requires that the edited quarter be the first calendar quarter of the year, that the edited year match the account’s refiling year, and that the response code be either 46 or 50 (refiled with a code change). These are needed for several edits to ensure the quality of CCS data.
8. Any other inactive account is bypassed (those not identified by steps 5, 6, and 7).
Note: The wholesale selection of the inactive accounts that meet the above criteria is questionable, since most conditions that will be flagged are not on the “crucial” errors list, so should not reappear unless the edit flag is reset. But a practical means of performing the initial selection has not been found.
9. Accounts with an invalid status code are selected (any status value other than 1, 2, or 9 (BLS also uses a ‘3’, but that does not apply to EXPO State systems) will be flagged for edit code 025 (invalid status), but will also be eligible for most other micro edits).
10. If processing for an older quarter (i.e., in Job 028S), the account is selected if the edit flag is “N” (reset, or requiring edits), or the edit flag is ignored (one of the job parameters), otherwise the account is bypassed. The remaining steps apply to current or future quarter edit runs (Jobs 001D, 001Q, 002D, 002F, 028D, and 242D).
11. Delinquent accounts are bypassed when they have not undergone an estimation attempt. This checks the estimation parameter for the ES2MI02 program earlier in the job (not applicable for Job 028D, since no estimates are made). If the account is currently delinquent for the quarter, delinquent estimates have not been selected, and the estimation flag (next to the quarterly edit and delinquency flags in the micro record) is set to “N” (estimates are not yet complete), the record is bypassed from the edits for this quarter.
12. Previously edited accounts without crucial errors are bypassed. If the edit flag is a “Y” (edits have been completed), and the ignore-edit-flag parameter was not selected for this job, the account is ignored for edit processing.
13. Master account is bypassed if the worksites are delinquent and not estimated. This bypass takes place when all of the following conditions are met:
- 1) The MEEI is ‘2’ (master account).
- 2) The account number matches the worksite summary account number (the data collected for worksites by the ES2UT01 program).
- 3) The worksites are delinquent (a notation in the worksite summary data).
- 4) Delinquent-account estimates were disallowed (either only partially reported accounts were to be processed in the estimation program, or the estimates were not performed at all (Job 028D)).
14. Worksites are bypassed when the master is delinquent and not estimated (skipped when RUN > 0, delinquent estimation not selected, and either the master account delinquency flag is “Y” (account is delinquent) or there is no master account match from the summarized worksite information (program ES2UT01).
One noteworthy exception to normal account selection occurs during the integrated edit phase of processing, conducted within Job 242D. Here the edit program will sometimes need to select accounts that have experienced earlier employment or wage edit exceptions, but are not eligible for reprocessing under the 14 steps outlined above. When the employer is one of the accounts composing a macro cell, the presence of an employment or total wage exception on both the macro and micro records will select the account for the edit report, causing it to appear with the integrated edits, which will be described more fully later in this appendix.
Once an account has been selected for editing, three groups of edits can be performed. General Edits are enacted in conjunction with current quarter processing. If neither of the edited quarters is the current quarter of the Micro File (i.e., the second quarter slot on the record), these edits will be omitted. Newer Quarter Edits, dealing specifically with the more recent of two edited quarters’ employment and wage data, use the 14 steps listed above. Similarly, Older Quarter Edits are conducted for establishments that meet the same criteria in the earlier of the two edited quarters. The two-quarter editing method (almost always using the current and immediate prior quarter for processing) is the hallmark of the MicMac project. Each of the three sections of edits carries its own set of edit codes and field flagging bytes in the Micro Edit File.
Although the “normal” processing is for current and immediate prior quarters (which also constitute the bulk of the descriptions to follow), the edits can be run for any consecutive pair of quarters. Future and current quarter are edited in Job 002F, while older quarters can be processed with Job 028S. The FESTER (score-based) edits of Job 008D can be run for any but the oldest Micro File quarter as well. However, none of these non-current edits are kept permanently. The system Micro Edit File is used to store current and immediate prior quarter edit exceptions, but is not used for any other quarters. On-line edits, using the ES2E screen, also deal with current and prior quarter data, since this screen uses the Micro Edit File as its primary source of data.
Certain inherent limitations are introduced when older quarters are edited. These limitations are caused by the lack of historical data and the quarter selection process used in the edits. Normally the four previous consecutive quarters of micro data are used for comparison studies, from employment and wage variation to code change reversals. These edits will not function in the same manner for older quarters (though many of the restrictions were removed with the addition on an eighth micro quarter in Version 7.0. The exceptions and limitations are listed with each edit code that has back-quarter restrictions in place.
Each type of micro edit has its own 3-digit identification number. Quarterly and general (or administrative) edit exceptions are not segregated by number, but are interspersed throughout the numbering scheme. One of the main reasons for the expansion of the edit code numbering system, and the intermingling of administrative and quarter error codes, was to establish a hierarchy of edit code significance. The intent was that the most severe error codes possess the lowest code numbers, while the least significant conditions have the highest code numbers. This hierarchy has been modified with the A-B-C list prioritization. Each of the edit code numbers, along with its A-B-C association, will be listed along with its description and formulation as this appendix progresses.
Some of the edit codes are never used within the EXPO edits, since the conditions listed are never found. For instance, code number 001 represents an invalid transaction code on an EQUI record. Since the records being edited are Micro File records, rather than EQUI records, this would never have any bearing on EXPO edits. All of these additional edits are conducted by BLS and are described in the Consolidated System Requirements manual. They will also be listed only briefly here, noting the edit definition and the reason for their exclusion from the EXPO edits.
Micro edits are numbered from 001 through 145. There are also two macro-only edit codes of 134 and 135. Predecessor/successor edits (performed by the ES2MI15 program) are in the 151 to 164 edit code range (though several codes have been dropped from this range over time). Multi-family balance edits, performed by the ES2MI03 program, are numbered 171 through 176, with additional warning messages numbered 177 to 184. Wage summary edits, conducted by the ES2WA03 program, have edit codes of 191 through 197. Although there are many edit codes present, there are also several gaps to be found in the numbering sequence. So, even though there may appear to be close to 200 edit exception codes, the actual number is closer to 120.
When a field is identified as being potentially erroneous, a flag will be set in the Micro Edit File record for the account. Three sets of flags are provided. The first set relates to administrative data fields. The second set points out potentially erroneous current-quarter fields. The third set reveals prior-quarter questionable fields. The terms “current” and “prior” for the quarters here is the norm. As mentioned earlier, Jobs 002F, 008D, and 028S use different quarters, but these exception conditions are only stored temporarily for reporting purposes. Standard (current/prior) edit processing error codes are also sent to three sections of the Micro Edit record, corresponding to the three error-flags groups. The error field flags are used to signal that the field should be underlined (using overstruck underscores) in the report print program (ES2UT23); on the ES2E screen, the suspicious fields are shown in red. This lets the problems stand out for quicker identification and resolution.
A flagged account will also cause a record to be written to the Micro Edit Report File. This second record is used to store supplemental data about the employer that are not found in the Micro File. These fields include Wage Summary File information (wage record count and wage record total wages), if this is available from the Wage Summary File. It also can include employment values from the Automated Current Employment Statistics (ACES) system if this employer is a participant in the ACES survey (and when ACES and EXPO both operate on the same mainframe computer). These values help to corroborate the employment and (for the Wage Summary File) wage values, or can dispute erroneous data in these fields, showing more realistic numbers.
A significant differentiation between the Micro Edit File and the Micro Edit Report File is that the Micro Edit File is a permanent storage device for multiple edit runs, whereas the Micro Edit Report File remains only for the duration of a particular micro or integrated edit job run. The auxiliary information of the Micro Edit Report File would be inappropriate for placement in the Micro Edit File, since the fields change over time. Records may remain on the Micro Edit File for an extended time period, but will not necessarily show up on each edit exception report (depending on the severity of errors contained in the account and whether someone has attempted to fix the conditions since the last edit run).
Some of the edits are also considered “crucial,” in that they absolutely must be cleared up before the quarter’s EQUI deliverable file is produced. These errors will set an edit flag lock switch in the MI28 program. This switch signals the program to override the normal setting of the account’s edit flag to a ‘Y’, which would indicate that the edits have been completed and don’t need to be redone. Therefore, any accounts with a crucial error will appear on every subsequent run of this program for the same quarter (until or unless the error condition is corrected during the intervening time span).
Note: The following edits will often mention that a field will be “noted in the edit report.” However, the compressed one-line format will not include all of these fields, since it is necessary to maintain the single-line report format. It is also an option to skip printing of the report entirely. These potential omissions in the report will not preclude the conditions from appearing on the ES2E screen, however. Edit report parameters should be considered carefully in conjunction with the level of edit reporting that is required for the State.
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