12 first month employment indicator
First Month’s Employment Indicator (IMTQ-M1-IND(1))
The indicator flag associated with the first month's employment for the current quarter is a single-character field located at position 739. The possible values are:
- ‘ ’ = First month's employment is reported; on the EQUI, this will be converted to an ‘R’.
- ‘A’ = First month's employment is estimated, using the ACES total first month employment field for source data.
- ‘C’ = First month's employment had been previously reported, but has been changed by a follow-up or adjusted report.
- ‘D’ = First month's employment has been obtained from a missing data notice, in which some elements had been reported earlier, and others, missing at the time, were subsequently late-reported.
- ‘E’ = First month's employment has been estimated (generally by a machine-generated imputation).
- ‘H’ = First month's employment has been hand-estimated (in case manual estimates are to be distinguished from machine-generated estimates).
- ‘K’ = First month’s employment received a special estimate due to a natural disaster affecting a large area of the State.
- ‘L’ = First month's employment has been reported late (designates datum which had been estimated earlier, but was later overridden with reported data).
- ‘M’ = First month's employment is missing.
- ‘N’ = First month's employment failed estimation due to long-term delinquency.
- ‘P’ = First month's employment has been prorated (distributed among worksites from the master account, using prior quarter distributions as a basis).
- ‘R’ = First month's employment is reported; this differs from the space value indicator, since it can lock data from any IMT replacement under one processing mode of the EXPO interface program.
- ‘S’ = First month’s employment is the sum of worksites of the family; applies only to delinquent master with a received MWR.
- ‘W’ = First month's employment has been assigned to match the wage record count from the Wage Summary File.
- ‘X’ = First month's employment came in with non-numeric characters (spaces, alphas, etc.), so was converted to zeroes (not used in EXPO).
Other than the potential lock associated with the ‘R’ indicator, there is no other difference between a space and an ‘R’ (reported data). The space is more commonly used due to the fact that it provides a blank area on reports and CICS screens, which enables the employment and wage figures to stand out more readily. As previously noted, however, the space will be changed to an ‘R’ in the EQUI deliverable to BLS. They have no need of locking reported data, so there is no distinction made between the two values in BLS reporting.
The ‘A’ value must be assigned manually by the QCEW analyst. This value would be set when a side-by-side review of QCEW and CES data revealed that the Micro File field was either missing and inestimable, or showed erroneous or poorly estimated data, whereas the corresponding ACES employment field provided a superior quality value. This value should not be set in the IMT file. Even if CES data were available to an extract program, its use in a systematic methodology as a substitute for missing QCR employment is a singularly bad idea. This opens up a “can of worms” with regard to CIPSEA compliance and the ability to publish or release the data. Only the QCEW analyst should decide when the CES employment should be applied.
The ‘C’ value is rarely used for most States. It is placed into the indicator field by the interface program (ES2MI01) when the IMT record brings in reported data, but the Micro record already contains reported data with a different value from an earlier employer submittal. In replacing reported data with information from a revised report, it is flagged as changed reported data.
The ‘D’ value denotes that the field was brought in from missing data notices, which are employer response forms or cards, most often to note missing employment with reported wages. This value is not assigned anywhere in the EXPO system, so it must be applied by hand. The difference between this value and the ‘L’ (for late reported data) is that the late-reporter is one that was fully delinquent until the late-arriving report was filed. The ‘D’ indicator shows an employer that filed a report, but didn't include all fields. In order to set this value, there needs to be an indicator present on the Tax File, or other State source file, to verify that the field genuinely originated from a missing data notice. Otherwise, the only way for the ‘D’ value to be used is in on-line operations, should the missing data notices be entered directly into Micro File records.
The ‘E’ value simply means that some process has estimated the value for the first month's employment. It implies that the estimate was machine-generated, but doesn't differentiate between internal and external estimation algorithms. Since estimates should be made by the EXPO system, rather than external pre-extract processes, this indicator should not be used in IMT record building.
The ‘H’ value declares the employment field to be hand-estimated. This value will only appear if it is entered manually in the on-line ES2C screen within the EXPO system. This may not appear to be an important differentiation, but could be informative for some States. In addition, hand-estimated data can receive additional safeguards not granted to standard estimates and prorations (‘E’ and ‘P’ values). One important aspect of a hand-generated estimate is its application to worksite records. When all worksites of a multi-worksite family are delinquent and have been machine estimated, they will be re-prorated whenever new reported data come in for the master account (in the estimation program, ES2MI02). However, when the ‘H’ flag is applied to some worksites, they will be exempt from automatic proration updates. Hand estimates also rank highly in the hierarchical IMT data replacement structure (using the employment/wage update mode field). Even though they are not as safeguarded as reported data, they will be preserved against most updates when a higher E/W update mode number is selected.
The ‘K’ indicator value is a machine-assigned setting that denotes the devastating effects of a major natural disaster, such as a hurricane, widespread flood, etc., that caused many of the businesses to be out of service for a significant time span (usually weeks or months). This indicator value was first devised after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast in September of 2005. The intent of this code was to denote a generic calamity or catastrophe; a “C” would have been a more appropriate value for this notation, but that letter was already in use to mark re-reported values. Even though the “K” values were employed in 05/3 and 05/4 data for certain States, their use dwindled to only a handful by 06/1, and has not been employed again since. Nonetheless, this value stands in reserve until needed again for special estimates related to a natural disaster.
The ‘L’ value denotes late-reported employment. It is significant in that it tells part of the history of the account. The ‘L’ is only used when the reported data overrides previously missing or estimated data for the field. Like the ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘H’ values, it is not always useful to all States, but is available nonetheless.
The ‘M’ value shows that the first month's employment is missing and has not been estimated, whether this is part of a fully delinquent account or shows a field that was omitted from an employer report. The missing value is also used for inactive quarters, since both estimated and reported data should be absent for an account that is out of business. It may also be that the employment field cannot be estimated, which is generally due either to a lack of previous-quarter data upon which to base the estimation, or to a long-term delinquency that can no longer be assumed to be in business, and must be researched. If an estimation fails because of consecutive delinquent quarters, however, the indicator will be changed to an ‘N’ (described next) automatically. The setting of this field is outlined in conjunction with the IMTQ-M1-EMPL(1) field, described earlier.
The ‘N’ value is machine set. It identifies multi-quarter delinquencies that have prevented estimation attempts because of the level of unavailable information. For most States, the maximum number of consecutive delinquent quarters is two, though a one-quarter maximum can be selected instead. When the number of consecutive delinquency quarters has been reached, no additional estimates can be made, and the ‘N’ value will be used in the indicator fields. The ‘N’ will not, however, be applied for new accounts with inactive prior quarters. These will remain as missing (‘M’) settings. Once an ‘N’ value has been set, it needs to be dealt with by the QCEW unit. Either a manual estimate will need to be applied, or other data (such as ACES or wage record count values) will have to be supplanted as a substitute for employment, in order to remove the ‘N’ indicator settings.
The ‘P’ value is set by a computer-generated proration of employment from the master account to each of its worksites. To obtain a ‘P’ indicator, the master account will have been reported, though the Multiple Worksite Report (MWR) form has not yet been returned by the employer. Since these prorations are based upon reported data, they are more highly regarded than standard estimates. Prorations can conceivably be enacted indefinitely, though the distributions represented by them become increasingly suspect as information regarding new or discontinued worksites, movement of sites, or transferal of employees from one location to another are all ignored since they are unknown. Because the ‘P’ indicator is computer-assigned, it should not be used in an IMT record.
The ‘S’ value can be assigned for a delinquent master record for which the MWR form has been received. Since it relies on the sum of all worksites in the family, this value cannot appear for any micro record other than a master (with an MEEI code of ‘2’). To be used, the family’s Multiple Worksite Report (MWR) form must have been received, but the Quarterly Contribution Report (QCR) is still delinquent. This is the flip side of the ‘P’ indicator, in that it uses reported data (from the worksites) to assign an imputation for the master. The partial reporting of families (either for the master alone or for the worksites alone) produces these two highly-regarded estimation methods. An ‘S’ would be even more highly regarded than a ‘P’, since it represents the current structure of the family, so should be very close to the true master account data. Because of the machine-generated nature of the ‘S’ indicator, however, it should not be used in IMT records.
The ‘W’ value represents a wage record count obtained from the corresponding quarter of the Wage Summary File. Wage record information is supplied by the employer along with the QCR, but may take longer to enter the system due to the volume of data involved. The wage record count notes the total number of employees that were employed at any time during the quarter. As a result, it is likely that this count will often exceed the employment level for any individual month of the quarter. Even though this can be on the high end of employment estimates, it is still based upon reported data, so can be given higher regard than a machine-generated estimate that is based solely on back-quarter data.
This indicator value is only enacted through on-line entry. Since the Wage Summary File (built from the Quarterly Wage Data Temporary File) will usually not have sufficient data until late in a quarter's processing, the ‘W’ setting will probably be used only occasionally. In general, the wage record data are not available for IMT extracts, so it is not likely that the ‘W’ indicator will be found here.
The ‘X’ value is an interpreted indicator setting. This setting is a BLS invention, designed to check for data extraction methodology problems. Since State data extraction methods have been thoroughly inspected prior to EXPO installation, however, the use of the ‘X’ indicator has never been implemented in the interface program. It is listed here for reference, but should never be seen in actual use.
If this value were ever implemented, it would be assigned by the computer when non-numeric characters appear in the first month’s employment field. Values of spaces, alphas, etc. (low-values are not included in this category), would cause the employment field to be converted to all zeroes, and the ‘X’ value to be set in the indicator. The ‘X’ assignment has the added effect of blocking estimation for the field. Since it is not known whether this was a missing or a reported data element (erroneously recorded by a “keypunch” error), it cannot be assumed that the field should receive a machine-generated estimate. Manual review by the QCEW unit staff will be required to decide what should be done with this indicator. It can either be converted to a hand estimate, replaced with the true reported value, or the indicator can be changed to an ‘M’ to allow subsequent employment estimation.
Since the ‘X’ is an interpreted or converted value, it should not be used in any IMT record.
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