I have been working with CPS ASEC and basic monthly sample. My sample is from 1995-2005.

I think it would be best to see what’s the maximum time CPSIDP shows up within 16 months cycle ( 4-8-4 cycle of CPS where they interview a household for 4 consecutive months , then give them a break for 8 months , and they take their interview for 4 consecutive months again till they never repeat their interview ever with same CPSIDP ). So, for a unique CPSIDP the longest amount of period can be tracked is - 16 months.

I need to create a transition variable for employed people using the basic monthly sample after creating a 16 months' panel data since it fits my research as well as CPS basic monthly sample provides the opportunity to track a unique CPSIDP for max 16 months. I'm using the following command to create the 16 months' panel :

```
gen time = ym(year, month)
forvalues t=372(1)680{
keep if (time==t & mish==8)|(time==t-16 & mish==1)
order cpsidp year month
sort cpsidp year month
by cpsidp: gen obs=_N
by cpsidp: drop if obs!=2

```

Does the following transition variable make sense for monthly samples like for ASEC in the above ??

```
sort cpsidp month

by cpsidp month: assert _N == 1

bys cpsidp: generate emp2unemp = unemployed==1 & employed[_n-1]==1

```
Please kindly help me with this monthly connecting panel of 16 months to eventually figure out the job transition thing . Though, I have been successfully coded the ASEC sample but with monthly sample kind of stuck. In case of yearly panel I created the transition variable like the following :

```
bys cpsidp (year): generate emp2unemp = unemployed==1 & employed[_n-1]==1

```

But, the above command I've made to create the transition form the basic monthly sample , I'm not entirely certain about that.

Could anyone kindly shed some light on this ? Appreciate the time !