Data users often wish to know the imputation status of earnings recode variables TPEARN, TJB(n)_MSUM, and TJB(n)_WKSUM(i) for n=1,…,7 and i=1,…,5 in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Beginning with the 2014 SIPP panel, the indicators of imputation status (“status flags”) for earnings recode variables that are available on the main public use data file specify that data users should create their own status flags by referring to the status flags of the component variables. Recognizing that it is difficult to create these status flags, the SAS program “APEARN.sas” is designed to create off-the-shelf status flags for earnings recode variables. The program also produces frequencies of these status flags as standard output to show imputation rates. The program requires the input dataset “XWK.sas7bdat”, which indicates which week numbers fall into each month in a year.

The dataset “earn_impute_complete.sas7bdat” also includes the following variables which users might find helpful.

Person-level variables indicating:
- The total amount of earnings on each job line,
- The total amount of earnings that were imputed on each job line,
- The total amount of earnings across all jobs,
- The total amount of earnings that were imputed across all jobs,
- The fraction of all earnings on each job line that was imputed,
- And the fraction of total earnings across all jobs that was imputed;
Person-month-level variables indicating:
- The total amount of earnings on each job line in each month,
- The total amount of earnings that were imputed on each job line in each month,
- The total amount of earnings across all jobs in each month,
- The total amount of earnings that were imputed across all jobs in each month,
- The fraction of all earnings on each job line that was imputed in each month,
- And the fraction of total earnings across all jobs that was imputed in each month.