Current Population Survey Series

The Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) 2024 Supplement is part of the Current Population Survey (CPS) Series. The CPS is a source of official Government statistics on employment and unemployment. The Census Bureau conducts the ASEC (known as the Annual Demographic File prior to 2003) over a three-month period, in February, March, and April, with most of the data collected in the month of March. The ASEC uses two sets of survey questions, the basic CPS and a set of supplemental questions.

The CPS, administered monthly, is a labor force survey providing current estimates of the economic status and activities of the population of the United States. Specifically, the CPS provides estimates of total employment (both farm and nonfarm), nonfarm self-employed persons, domestics, and unpaid helpers in nonfarm family enterprises, wage, and salaried employees, and estimates of total unemployment.

In addition to the basic CPS questions, respondents were asked questions from the ASEC, which provides supplemental data on poverty, geographic mobility/migration, and work experience. Comprehensive work experience information was given on the employment status, occupation, and industry of persons aged 15 and over. Additional data for persons aged 15 and older were available concerning weeks worked and hours per week worked, reason not working full-time, total income and supplemental income components. Demographic variables include age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, veteran status, educational attainment, occupation, and income. Data on employment and income refer to the previous calendar year, although demographic data refer to the time of the survey.

The occupation and industry information variables in this data collection can help the data users identify individuals who worked in arts and culture related fields. The occupations are listed in a category entitled "Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations," which includes professions such as artists, designers, actors, musicians, and writers (see Appendix B of the User's Guide for further category details). Industries related to the arts and culture are in the "Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation" category (see Appendix A of the User's Guide for further category details). For example, using the occupation and industry information variables from the ASEC help data users to obtain statistics about people in artists' occupations that receive supplemental income, live public housing, or are full-time students.

The ASEC data provided by the Census Bureau are distributed in a hierarchical file structure, with three record types present: Household, Family, and Person. The ASEC is designed to be a multistage stratified sample of housing units, where the hierarchical file structure can be thought of as a person within a family within a household unit. Here the main unit of analysis is the household unit.

The Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) 2025 Supplement is part of the Current Population Survey (CPS) Series. The CPS is a source of official Government statistics on employment and unemployment. The Census Bureau conducts the ASEC (known as the Annual Demographic File prior to 2003) over a three-month period, in February, March, and April, with most of the data collected in the month of March. The ASEC uses two sets of survey questions, the basic CPS and a set of supplemental questions.

The CPS, administered monthly, is a labor force survey providing current estimates of the economic status and activities of the population of the United States. Specifically, the CPS provides estimates of total employment (both farm and nonfarm), nonfarm self-employed persons, domestics, and unpaid helpers in nonfarm family enterprises, wage, and salaried employees, and estimates of total unemployment.

In addition to the basic CPS questions, respondents were asked questions from the ASEC, which provides supplemental data on poverty, geographic mobility/migration, and work experience. Comprehensive work experience information was given on the employment status, occupation, and industry of persons aged 15 and over. Additional data for persons aged 15 and older were available concerning weeks worked and hours per week worked, reason not working full-time, total income and supplemental income components. Demographic variables include age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, veteran status, educational attainment, occupation, and income. Data on employment and income refer to the previous calendar year, although demographic data refer to the time of the survey.

The occupation and industry information variables in this data collection can help the data users identify individuals who worked in arts and culture related fields. The occupations are listed in a category entitled "Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations," which includes professions such as artists, designers, actors, musicians, and writers (see Appendix B of the User's Guide for further category details). Industries related to the arts and culture are in the "Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation" category (see Appendix A of the User's Guide for further category details). For example, using the occupation and industry information variables from the ASEC help data users to obtain statistics about people in artists' occupations that receive supplemental income, live public housing, or are full-time students.

The ASEC data provided by the Census Bureau are distributed in a hierarchical file structure, with three record types present: Household, Family, and Person. The ASEC is designed to be a multistage stratified sample of housing units, where the hierarchical file structure can be thought of as a person within a family within a household unit. Here the main unit of analysis is the household unit.

NADAC data users should note that this data collection contains data on arts-related occupations. Please read the summary below for details.

This data collection is comprised of responses from two sets of survey questionnaires, the basic Current Population Survey (CPS) and a survey on the topic of Contingent Employment in the United States, which was administered as a supplement to the February 2017 CPS. In addition to administering the basic CPS, interviewers asked the supplementary questions in three-fourths of the sample households.

The CPS, administered monthly, is a labor force survey providing current estimates of the economic status and activities of the population of the United States, for the week prior to the survey. Specifically, the CPS provides estimates of total employment (both farm and nonfarm), nonfarm self- employed persons, domestics, and unpaid helpers in nonfarm family enterprises, wage and salaried employees, and estimates of total unemployment.

The Contingent Work Supplement questions were asked of all applicable persons age 16 years and older. The supplement data is comprised of information on contingent or temporary work that a person did without expecting continuing employment from the particular employer they happened to be working for. Also included is information about each worker's expectation of continuing employment, satisfaction with their current employment arrangement, current job history, transition into the current employment arrangement, search for other employment, employee benefits, and earnings. The occupation and industry information variables in this data collection can help the data users identify individuals who worked in arts and culture related fields. The occupations are listed in categories like "Architecture and engineering occupations" and "Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations," which include professions such as artists, architects designers, actors, musicians, and writers. Industries related to the arts and culture are in the "Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation" category. The supplement questions were not asked of unpaid family workers and persons not looking for work (this includes persons not in the labor force and unemployed persons on layoff who are not looking for work). Demographic variables include age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, veteran status, educational attainment, occupation, and income.