[Questions 31-34 were asked of persons other than those who did not work for pay or profit, at least 1 day during the last 7 days, did not help in a family farm or business at least one day during the last 7 days, did not have any employment, work on farm, enterprise or other family enterprise to return to, and were not seeking work during the last 7 days.]

32. What is your principal occupation? (Describe the nature of your work in two or more words) ________

Questions 25-34 record information on work or employment of a person. Be sure to explain to the respondent that you are only concerned with the period of 7 days prior to the day of interview.

Question 32
This question refers to the person's principal occupation. "Principal Occupation" refers to the occupation in which the respondent spent most of his time. Should the time spent in, say, 2 occupations be the same, the one which brings in more income is the principal occupation. In the very unlikely situation where the time spent and the income earned are the same, leave it to the respondent to decide which one is the principal occupation.

You are to record here the principal occupation in which the person was engaged during the 7 day reference period. If the person was unemployed record his previous occupation.

It is important that you obtain the exact type of work done by the respondent. Avoid general terms such as driver, helper, farmer, mechanic, Government worker, etc. In these cases you are to find out the kind of helper or driver or mechanic. For example, a driver may be a lorry driver, a taxi driver or a chauffeur. Use two or more words whenever possible to describe the exact type of work done by the respondent.

A person's job designation may not be always adequate by itself. In such cases, additional information describing the nature of his work would be required for purposes of classification.

You may sometimes find difficulty in translating occupations given in various dialects/ languages into the Bahasa Malaysia/English equivalents. In such cases, you can record the words actually used by the respondent; for example, words like mandore, serang, amah, or Hang-kong can be translated in the office at a later stage.