Hello,

I have CPS monthly data 2015-present. I want to calculate unemployment rate. I am using empstat and labforce variables from the CPS. I am also using wtfinl as the weights for the data.

My question is how to calculate the weighted unemployment rate using this data? I was able to calculate the unweighted rate using

gen unemployed = (empstat==21)+(empstat==22)
gen lf = labforce==2
gen unemp_rate = (unemployed==1)/(lf==1)

When I multiplied unemployment_rate by the wtfinl variable, I got very large unemployment rate. I do not know what am I doing wrong? How to weight the unemployment rate?

Also, a very stupid question, my data is individual level. How can I aggregate the weighted unemployment rate into a table of (year - month - weighted unemployment rate)? I mean I do not know how to report the weighted unemployment rate for each month of my period (2015-present).

Thanks