Alaska and Hawaii. The effects of these changes on comparability of historical data are minor, particularly with respect to percentages. For further discussion of the effects of these changes see pages 1 (footnotes to table A-1) and XIV of the May 1962 issue of the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly report, Employment and Earnings. High school graduation status.-Persons who, at the time of the survey, were not enrolled in school as defined below were asked by the enumerator whether they had graduated from high school and, if so, in what year. For those who were dropouts, that is, not high school graduates, information was obtained on the year they last attended school and, starting in 1962, the highest grade attended and the highest grade completed. The question on year of high school graduation was also asked of persons enrolled in college. School enrollment.-The school enrollment statistics are based on replies to the enumerator's inquiry as to whether the person had been enrolled at any time during the current term or school year in day or night school in any type of public, parochial, or other private school in the regular school system. Such schools include elementary schools, junior or senior high schools, and colleges or universities. Persons enrolled in special schools not in the regular school system, such as trade schools or business colleges, are not incuded in the enrollment figures. Persons enrolled in classes which do not require physical presence in school, such as correspondence courses or other courses of independent study and training courses given directly on the job, are not reported as enrolled in school. Full-time and part-time attendance at college.-A college student was classified as attending college full time if he was taking 12 hours or more of classes during the average school week, and part time if he was taking less than that amount. Age. The age classification is based on the age of the person at his last birthday. Color. The term "color" refers to the division of the population into two groups-white and nonwhite. The nonwhite group includes, among others, Negroes, Indians, Japanese, and Chinese. Marital status of women.-Women were classified into three groups according to their marital status at the time of interview: Single; married, husband present; and other marital status. A woman was classified as "married, husband present" if her husband was reported as a member of the household even though he may have been temporarily absent on business, vacation, or a visit, in a hospital, etc., at the time of interview. The term "other marital status" applies to all other married women and to women who were widowed or divorced. Employed.-Employed persons comprise those who, during the survey week, were either (a) "at work"-those who did any work for pay or profit, or worked without pay for 15 hours or more on a family farm or business; or (b) “with a job but not at work"-those who did not work and were not looking for work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent because of vacation, illness, industrial dispute, bad weather, or beacuse they were taking time off for various other reasons. Occupation, industry, and class of worker. The data on occupation, industry, and class of worker relate to the job held during the survey week, with persons employed at two jobs or more classified in the one at which they worked the most hours. The occupation and industry categories used here are the major groups used in the 1960 Census of Population. Hours of work.-The statistics on hours of work relate to the actual number of hours worked during the survey week. For persons working in more than one job, these figures relate to the number of hours worked in all jobs during the week. Persons designated as working "full time" are those who worked 35 hours or more in the survey week; those designated as "part time" are persons who worked between 1 and 34 hours. Part-time workers are further classified by their usual status at their present job (either full time or part time) and by their reasons for working part time during the survey week (economic or other reasons). "Economic reasons" include slack work, material shortages, repairs to plant or equipment, start or termination of job during the week, and inability to find ful-time work. "Other reasons" include labor dispute, bad weather, own illness, vacation, demands of home housework, of school, etc., no desire for fulltime work, full-time worker only during peak season, and similar reasons. during the survey week and were looking for work, regardless of whether they were eligible for unemployment insurance. Also included as unemployed are those who did not work at all during the survey week and (a) who were waiting either to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off or to report to a new wage or salary job scheduled to start within the following 30 days (and were not in school during the survey week) or (b) who would have been looking for work except that they were temporarily ill or believed no work was available in their line of work or in the community. Labor force.-The civilian labor force comprises the total of all civilians classi fied as employed or unemployed in accordance with the criteria just described. Not in labor force.-All civilians who are not classified as employed or unemployed are defined as "not in labor force." RELIABILITY OF THE ESTIMATES Estimating procedure.—The estimating procedure used in the monthly survey involves the inflation of weighted sample results to independent estimates of the civilian population of the United States by age, color, and sex. These independent estimates are based on statistics from the 1960 Census of Population beginning with data for April 1962 (March 1962 for reports on marital and family characteristics and on educational attainment), adjusted for births deaths, immigration, and emigration; and statistics on the strength of the Armed Forces. Prior to this time and beginning in January 1953, the estimates were based on similarly adjusted data from the 1950 Census of Population; before 1953, data from the 1940 census were used. Variability.—Since the estimates are based on a sample, they may differ from the figures that would have been obtained if it were possible to take a complete census using the same schedules and procedures. As in any survey, the results are also subject to errors of response and re porting. These may be relatively large in the case of persons with irregular attachments to the labor market. The standard error is primarily a measure of sampling variability, that is, the variations of sample estimates from a complete census that might occur by chance because only part of the population is surveyed. As calculated for this report, the standard error also partially measures the effect of response and enumeration errors but does not reflect any systematic biases in the data. The chances are about 2 out of 3 that an estimate from the sample would differ from a complete census by less than the standard error. The chances are about 19 out of 20 that the difference would be less than twice the standard error. The figures shown in tables 1 and 2 are approximations of the standard errors which can be applied to the statistics presented in this report, and should be interpreted as indicators of the order of magnitude of the standard errors rather than as the precise standard error for any specific item. TABLE 1.-Standard error of level of monthly estimates 30,000. 210 The following example illustrates their use by applying the appropriate figures from table 1 to the estimate of 746,000 high school graduates of June 1962 who were not enrolled in college and were in the labor force in October 1962. The chances are about 2 out of 3 that the difference between the estimate and the figure which would have resulted from a complete census is less than 40,000. The chances are about 19 out of 20 that such a census figure would differ by less than 80,000. Since an estimated percentage is computed by using sample data for both numerator and denominator, its reliability depends upon both the size of the percentage and the size of the total upon which the percentage is based. Estimated percentages are relatively more reliable than the corresponding absolute estimates of the numerator of the percentage, particularly if the percentage is large (50 percent or greater). Sums of distribution.-Sums of individual items-whether absolute numbers or percentages-may not equal totals because of independent rounding of totals and components. DETAILED TABLES (In these tables, the population includes all persons 16 to 24 years of age in the civilian noninstitutional population in the calendar week ending October 13, 1962.) TABLE A.-Employment status of high school graduates 16 to 24 years of age not enrolled in college by year of graduation, sex, color, and marital status of women, October 1962 |