Economic activity

Occupation
23. What type of work did [the respondent] do in the past 7 days? To be precise, what were the main tasks and duties?

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.

152. Column A24: Occupation
Q. What type of work did the respondent do in the past 7 days?
A person's occupation depends on the tasks and duties, which the person performs. Remember that if a person worked at all during the past 7 days, whether for cash or not, and for however short a period, then you should try to find out what kind of work the person did. You should try to get the respondent to give both a job title and a two- or three-word description of the tasks performed. For example, if a person states that he/she is a mechanic, ask him/her what he/she repairs.

You should record his/her response in the unshaded area of column A24 as follows: "mechanic fixes cars" or "mechanic, fixes radios". Use the comments box if you need more space. If a person moved from one job to another, you should enter the most recent occupation even if it only lasted for a day or two. This may happen with people who are casual laborers. If a person has more than one occupation, record the one on which he/she spends most of his/her time. However, if someone has a temporary job during the school holidays - but has a permanent job during term time-it is his/her permanent occupation that should be described. A census enumerator or supervisor who is a schoolteacher during term time must therefore be described as "primary school teacher" or "secondary school teacher".

You will usually have to probe the respondent to get good information about a person's occupation. For example, people who make things (bread, clothing, pottery, wood objects, tools, beer, food products, furniture, bricks, etc.) should be asked how they make them. It is important to find out whether they mostly use their hands or hand-held tools, or whether they mostly produce these goods by operating machinery. A person who brews beer at home using traditional techniques belongs to a different occupational category from a person who operates a machine that ferments the grains used in making beer. (See probing examples below). You should also probe when the information provided by the respondent does not seem reasonable. For example, if a person has only completed Form 4, it seems unlikely that he/she could be an auditor or an engineer. If you probe, you may discover that the person is actually an accounting clerk or an engineering assistant.

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