Beginning in 2019, the Census Bureau implemented changes to the class of worker, industry and occupation questions as the result of the 2016 American Community Survey Content Test.

The revision to the class of worker question was designed to clarify the intent of the question and response categories by rewording the question and categories, reformatting the layout, defining unpaid family workers, and explicitly defining a category for those in Active Duty military and uniformed services status.

In conjunction with the class of worker question revision, the series of industry and occupation questions were also revised to improve question clarity. In the series of industry questions, the Active Duty checkbox was removed from the questionnaire as it became redundant with the creation of the Active Duty category in the class of worker question. The Active Duty checkbox was previously asked along with the employer name question. The text of the employer name question was also revised and now specifically lists “branch of the Armed Forces” in the question text.

As part of the thorough review process of ACS data by subject matter analysts, an increase in the estimate of Active Duty members between 2018 and 2019 was noticed. It was determined that the increase was not due to an error in the collection, processing, or weighting of the ACS data. The increase was likely due to changes to the class of worker, industry, and occupations questions. For more information about these changes, see the following reports: 2016 American Community Survey Content Test Evaluation Report: Class of Worker and 2016 American Community Survey Content Test Evaluation Report: Industry and Occupation.