Questionnaire Text

Questionnaire form view entire document:  text  image
C. Economic Characteristics


[Questions 13 - 18 were asked of persons 10 years of age and older.]


13. Did you have any job or employment last week?

If the answer is yes, mark the box "worked." If the answer is no, ask, "then, what did you do (how did you spend your time) last week?" For one who "did not work, but looked for a job," ask if the person had been employed before and mark box 2 or 3 as appropriate.
Remember that a homemaker is one who engages exclusively in household duties in her own home without receiving remuneration, and who does not attend school.
Retiree, pensioner and rentier: one who has income without working. Other condition: student, disabled, children and other inactive individuals.

[] 1 Worked
Did not work but looked for work

[] 2 Worked before
[] 3 Never worked

[] 4 Homemaker
[] 5 Retiree, pensioner, rentier
[] 6 Other condition

Questionnaire instructions view entire document:  text  image
C. Economic Characteristics


(Only for persons 10 years old or older)

Keep in mind that questions 13-18 of this section correspond only to persons 10 years old or older.
The answers obtained in question 13 are the basis for classifying the population of persons 10 years old or older as economically active (employed or unemployed) and as not economically active (homemaker, student, retired, pensioned, rentier, or other inactive persons).
The questions relating to the section are applied to the situation existing in the week immediately before the day of the Census (reference week).
Definition of reference week or "last week": It is the complete calendar week from Sunday to Saturday that for census purposes goes from May 3 to May 9, 1970.


Question 13 Did you have any job or employment last week?

Mark box 1 (you worked) if the answer to this question is "YES", for the following cases:

a) If the person to be enumerated has an occupation or job, remunerated in money or in kind during all or part of the reference period which is the week of the 3rd to the 9th of May, 1970.
b) If the person has a business or job of his own account.


[The instructions refer to a graphic of question 13 of the census form.]

[p. 39]

c) If the person regularly works in a business or enterprise that belongs to a family member, even while not drawing a paycheck or salary. ([Contributing] Family Worker).
d) If the person has a steady remunerated job but does not work during the reference week because of temporary circumstances: sickness or accident; vacation; on leave; pregnant; work conflicts; bad weather; machine breakdowns; strike; etc.

If the person responds " no", ask what he/she did (what did he/she dedicate him/herself to) last week and make the corresponding annotation in agreement with the answer that the person gives.
Mark box 2 when:
a) The person did not have a job or employment during the reference week but has worked before and is looking for employment (visits employment agencies or offices in search of work, consults friends about the availability of work, is relying on ads in newspapers, that is to say, makes the effort with the goal of finding employment).
b) The person is not looking for work because a job has been found that will begin on a previously appointed date.
c) The person did not look for work nor solicit employment because they thought that they did not have any chance of getting a job.

Mark box 3 when:
The person has never worked but is looking for a first job ("New Worker").
Box 4, Homemaker
Include in this group women who dedicate themselves only and exclusively to domestic tasks and chores in their own home and were not looking for work, nor were they retired, pensioned, living on investments, or attending school.

[p. 40]

Box 5, Retired, pensioned, rentied:
Include in this group all persons who have stopped working and are receiving income exclusively in the concept of auxiliary or pensioned retirement. By the same manner, include in this group all the persons who, without working, receive money or investments from a business or enterprise. Do not include persons who receive a pension for food, divorce, etc.
Box 6, Other condition
In this group persons 10 years old or older who are not thought to be in a previously defined group and that do not have a remunerated job and are not looking for employment are classified. The following persons will be included in this group:
a) Student: The person who dedicates him/herself to studying.
b) Economically inactive: The person who, without being classified in any of the previous groups, does not do any economic activity and remains idle because he/she does not want to work or for being found physically or mentally impeded to do it.

In relation with this question, special care should be taken with persons of the female sex who declare themselves to be "Homemaker" (box 4) and those who declare themselves to be students (box 6). In the first case they sometimes also do remunerated jobs like: cleaning, ironing, sewing, styling hair, painting fingernails, making candy, etc. in their own home or outside it but because they spend little time in these labors they forget to give this information.
On the other hand, some students after class or on weekends dedicate themselves to cleaning shoes, selling newspapers, washing cars, etc. Equal care should be taken with the spouse or companion or the children of farm families, who regularly help with the agricultural labors but do not declare this job. In these cases mark box 1 "you worked".
For the reasons already explained, it is necessary that when asking and receiving as an answer that the person is a "Homemaker" or "Student", the Enumerator should go into more depth to find out if the person worked any job during the reference week. If the result was that during this period the person worked, even when it was partially, instead of [p. 41] marking box 3 (Homemaker) or 6 (Student), box 1 "You worked" will be marked and the interview will continue in order to finish the information of the section relating to economic characteristics.