Questionnaire form
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20. What was the principal activity or work that you carried out during the past week or the last time you worked before you became unemployed? _____
Examples: elementary school teacher, construction laborer, agricultural day-laborer, food vendor, laundress, install steering wheel covers, hairdresser, dressmaker, domestic servant, etc.
Questionnaire instructions
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Question 20.- What was the primary occupation or job that you performed last week or the last job you had if you were unemployed?
[There is a picture of question 20 from this section of the enumeration form.]
This question is for all people who answered question 18 (what did you do last week?) with responses 01 or 02, answered yes (1) to question 19, and those people who looked for work having worked previously (unemployed) and answered no (2) in question 19.
Record in detail the nature of the work that the person performed. If the person did more than one job during the week prior to the census, ask for and record the occupation that the person considers the principal or more important activity.
Occupation: By occupation is meant the different tasks that people perform in their job, regardless of the type of economic activity of the place where they work or the position they have.
[p. 51]
When the occupation cannot be characterized by a definite name, describe the nature of the work. Example: puts on steering wheel covers, assembles cardboard boxes, etc. Avoid very general or ambiguous terms like driver, operator, helper, day laborer, or teacher; always stress that the information should be precise.
Examples:
Incomplete: Unskilled laborer
Complete: Unskilled farm worker, unskilled construction worker, unskilled quarry worker, unskilled freight worker
Incomplete: Laborer
Complete: Construction worker, carpentry worker
Incomplete: Operator
Complete: Farm machine operator, construction equipment operator, optical equipment operator, broadcasting equipment operator
Incomplete: Engineer
Complete: Civil engineer, mechanical engineer, chemical engineer, systems engineer, electrical engineer
Incomplete: Teacher
Complete: Primary school teacher, high school teacher, music teacher, post-secondary teacher
Incomplete: Seller
Complete: Pharmaceutical sales representative, department store salesperson, ticket and fare agent, grocery store clerk
Incomplete: Mechanic
Complete: Airplane motor mechanic, agricultural machinery mechanic
Incomplete: Manager
Complete: Textile industry manager, manager of cased meat marketing
Remember that what should be recorded is the occupation and not the profession. It can happen that the occupation and profession coincide, but there are also cases in which it is not like that. Examples: physicians, attorneys, architects, etc., work in their profession, however, there are cases where a physician is the administrator of a hospital, or an architect is the manager of a company. Note that in the previous examples, the occupation of the doctor is administrator and that of the architect is company manager.
[p. 52]
People who work in public organizations generally state public employee as their occupation. Ask them to describe their specific occupation. Remember that within an institution there is a variety of occupations, such as for example: executive secretaries, superintendents, physicians, financial analysts, departmental directors, statistical researchers, etc.