Economic activity

21. Since [the respondent] was not working, what did he / she do?

[If female, go to question 25. If male, go to next person]

145. Column A18-A25
These questions apply only to persons aged 12 and years and over. If the person is less than 12 years of age, then when you reach column A16 you should put dashes in the shaded areas for columns A16-A31 and proceed to the next listed person in the household.

150. Column A22
Q. Since the respondent was not working, what did he/she do?

a. Actively seeking work:
This category applies to all those people who have been actively looking for a job in the past 7 days. These people could be visiting potential employers, looking for job advertisements in the newspapers, or in any other way of looking for a job.
b. House work:
Remember that either a female or a male not economically active could be responsible for daily housework, i.e. cleaning of the house and remises, preparing food, and other household duties. People doing this kind of activity should be coded 2. It should however be noted that domestic servants working for pay are classified as employed.
c. Student:
A student is a person, at least 12 years of age, who, as a result of attending school for most of the day, does not work. Students on school vacation should be coded under this category not as home maker although they will be currently doing some daily housework.
d. Retired:
A retired person is a woman or a man who, as a result of old age, ill health, or other reasons, is not doing any type of work. It should be noted that a person who has retired from his/her permanent job but at the moment is working somewhere (working on contract basis or any paying job) should not fall under this category, therefore response in A22 should be 1.
e. Sick:
This is a person who cannot or who had to leave work as a result of illness or due to poor health conditions. A medical doctor could have made a recommendation that the person should not work at all.
f. Other (specify):
If the person was doing something else, other than the possibilities listed above, then write in what the person was doing in the unshaded area. If you need more space, use the comments box.

Generally speaking, if a person has had more than one activity during the past 7 days, it is the foremost of these that must be taken (that is which took up most time and/or which was most rewarding). There is, however, an exception to this:
Seeking work takes precedence over "home maker". For example, if a person spent all his time doing housework - except for half a day when he went looking for work - he must be coded 1 as "Actively seeking work" and not 2 as being "homemaker". It must be noted that economic activities take precedence over non-economic activities.