30. What is (was) your occupation in your main job?
In all cases, describe the occupation fully and precisely giving the full job title
Use precise terms such as retail store manager, secondary teacher, or electrical engineer. Do not use general terms such as manager, teacher, or engineer. Civil servants and local government employees should state their grade e.g. senior administrative officer. Members of the Gardaí or Army should state their rank. Teachers should state the branch of teaching e.g. primary teacher. Clergy and religious orders should give full description e.g. nun, registered general nurse.
Write in your main occupation ____
Appendix H. Detailed notes on the household form
Questions 24 to 33 should be answered only by persons 15 years and over
Persons who are working should answer questions 29, 30, 32 and 34.
Persons who are retired should answer questions 29 and 30 only.
Persons who are unemployed should answer questions 29, 30 and 32 only.
All other persons should not answer any of the questions 29, 30, 32, 33 or 34.
[Question 30: What is (was) your occupation in your main job?]
The information that question 30 will provide is used to build a picture of occupational groups and how occupations are changing over time.
Persons who are unemployed or retired should base their answer on the work that they did last.
Some guidelines on answering question 30:
- The occupation must be provided for everyone who marked the following in question 27
Working for payment or profit
Unemployed
Retired from employment
- Those who marked looking after home / family in question 27 often answer question 30 by writing 'home (or domestic) duties' as their occupation. Although inappropriate, no attempt should be made to alter this response.
- You should ensure that the description of the occupation is precise and in accordance with the question's instructions.
- If in doubt as to how a particular occupation should be described, it is better to give a full and detailed description.
- The final part of the question (size of area farmed) should only be answered by farmers or farm workers.