Before using our data, let us help clarify
the data for you. Contact us at FedScope@opm.gov
Note:
This information about the CPDF may also be
accessed via our Data Definitions section, and is
available in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and/or HTML format.
Purpose
CPDF
is an information system to support statistical analyses of Federal personnel management
programs. It is not intended to be a Governmentwide personnel accounting system.
Composition
CPDF
is composed of two primary data files.
Status File
Documents the
characteristics of employees at a specific point in time.
Dynamics File
Documents personnel
actions (e.g., accessions, separations, promotions, etc.) over a period
of time.
Coverage
CPDF
coverage is limited to Federal civilian employees.
Executive Branch coverage includes all
agencies except the following:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
Central Intelligence Agency
Defense Intelligence Agency
Foreign Service personnel at the State Department (included until
March 2006)
National Imagery and Mapping Agency
National Security Agency
Office of the Vice President
Postal Rate Commission
Tennessee Valley Authority
U.S. Postal Service
White House Office
Other exclusions include:
Public
Health Service’s Commissioned Officer Corps
Non-appropriated fund employees and
foreign nationals overseas.
Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) did not provide dynamics data
until
Fiscal Year 2007.
Legislative Branch coverage is
limited to the Government Printing Office, U.S. Tax Court, and selected commissions.
The Judicial Branch is entirely
excluded.
CPDF
coverage has changed over time. Coverage in older files may differ slightly from
coverage in more current files.
CPDF
coverage can differ from that of other Office
of Personnel Management
(OPM) data sources.
Collection,
Editing, & Production of Status and Dynamics Data
With the exception of
"generated" data elements, all status and dynamics data are submitted by the
agencies from their own separate personnel systems. Generated data elements are
created from one or more submitted data elements (e.g., Metropolitan
Statistical Area is generated from Duty Location, a submitted data element).
Agency submissions are subjected to validity and
relationship edits to ensure codes are valid and consistent with other related data
elements (e.g., if pay plan is GS then grade must be 01-15). These
edits can detect invalid data but not miscoded data (e.g., record shows
grade of 11 but employee is actually grade 12).
Submissions that fail minimum acceptability
requirements are rejected and must be resubmitted.
Values of individual data elements that fail the
edits are replaced with asterisks to prevent invalid data from entering CPDF.
Agencies are kept informed of their edit failures
and may submit corrections.
The Office
of Personnel Management
(OPM) may change data element values that
are missing or invalid by matching to older files or making the values consistent with
statistical assumptions. Alteration of agency submitted values is limited to
situations where agency correction is not possible or feasible and failure to act would
seriously undermine the usability of the data.
Submissions and their corrections are processed to
produce quarterly (i.e., March, June, September and
December) status and dynamics files.
Status files
Reflects employment at the end of a quarter but, for many agencies, may
actually reflect employment at the end of the pay period just prior to the end of the
quarter.
Dynamics files
Reflects all personnel actions occurring within a quarter but may be missing
actions which appear in subsequent quarters because of late submission by the agencies.
Once a quarterly CPDF
status or dynamics file is released for use it is no longer subject to correction.
Accuracy
CPDF
accuracy is affected by:
Omissions (e.g., personnel action
missing from dynamics file).
Duplications (e.g., employee with
multiple records in status file).
CPDF
has some safeguards against true duplication. What appears as duplication may be
valid as in the case of employees with multiple appointments.
Invalid data, which get recoded to asterisks by the
CPDF edits.
Miscoded data (e.g., record shows
grade of 11 but employee is actually grade 12).
Accuracy varies from quarterly file to quarterly
file, agency to agency, and data element to data element.
Changes in organizations and
personnel classifications over time require corresponding changes in the CPDF codes. These changes, which involve
additions, deletions and/or redefinitions, can make tracking a consistent set of
information over time difficult.
Some CPDF data are collected at the time of appointment and not
routinely updated (e.g., education level may reflect a bachelor’s
degree at the time of the employee’s appointment but not the master’s degree the
employee subsequently earned.)
Pay
All pay fields, except those for fee basis and piece
work, reflect annualized rates of pay. They do not reflect earnings
which may include other forms of pay (e.g., overtime, shift
differentials) or may be less than the annualized rate because of the employee’s work
schedule (i.e., less than full time non-seasonal) or individual
circumstances (e.g., leave without pay).
Adjusted basic pay may be "capped" to
reflect payable rather than scheduled rate of pay.
Basic pay and total pay are not "capped"
and may exceed amount actually paid.
While most CPDF
data elements have specific formatting requirements, some do not. This is
particularly true for data elements in the auxiliary files which frequently reflect
uncoded or agency defined values (e.g., although most names conform to a
last name, first name format, there is no mandatory format).
