Questionnaire Text

Questionnaire form view entire document:  text  image
For individuals 10 years of age and older

[Questions 14-23 were asked of persons aged 10 and older.]


21. Do you work or did you work the last as a . . .

[] 01 Government employee?
[] 02 Employee of a private company?
[] 03 Employee of the Canal Commission or Defense Sites?
[] 04 Employee of a not-for-profit institution?
[] 05 Domestic servant?
[For responses 1-5,] (Continue with question 22)
[] 06 Independent or own-account?
[] 07 Owner or employer?
[] 08 Family worker?
[] 09 Member of a production cooperative?
[For responses 6-9,] (Skip to question 23)

Questionnaire instructions view entire document:  text  image

The objective of this section is to get information about the participation of the population 10 years old or older in economic activities of the country.
The information refers to the week before the Census. This week is defined as the reference week and is understood to be from Sunday to Saturday.
It is recommended that each member of the home respond for themselves. If this is not possible, the head or responsible adult could respond for the youngest, but it is preferable to insist that the adult members, especially if they are working, respond for themselves.

[p. 86]

Principal activity of the person:
The responses obtained in questions 14 to 17 are the basis for classifying the population of 10 years old or older in:
1. Economically Active Population: is understood to be the population 10 years old or older who supplies the available work force for the production of economic goods and services in the country, during the reference week. This population is classified as employed or unemployed.

a) Employed population: covers persons 10 years old or older who during the reference week:
- Have an occupation or job remunerated in money or in kind.
- Have their own business or they work on their own account.
- Work regularly in a business or company of a member of their family even when not drawing a wage or salary ([Contributing] family worker). In this case a [contributing] family worker should have as a minimum 15 hours worked to be considered as such.
- Persons absent from their job temporarily because of sickness or accident, holidays or vacations, strikes, on leave from school or military service, on maternity leave.
- Did not work, but do occasional jobs.

b) Unemployed population: This group is understood to be persons 10 years old or older who during the reference week:
Do not have an occupation or job and are looking for employment.
Looked for work before and waits for news, that is to say, one who has adopted means of looking for remunerated employment or an independent job.

2. Not economically active population: is understood to be retirees or pensioners, students, workers at home or homemakers, rentiers and other conditions.


Questions 19 to 23 should be asked to all persons who marked circle 1 in questions 14, 15, 16 and 17 and circles 2 and 3 of the last question except persons who answered that "they never have worked" (circle 9998) in question 18.


Question No. 21: Do you work or did you work the last as a:

The objective of this question is to know the category of the occupation, which is nothing more than the classification with respect to the employment that the interviewed person manages or managed, whether employed or unemployed.
Before asking this question, observe the responses written down in questions 19 and 20, since based on these responses, in some cases you will be able to deduce which circle in this question to mark.
Read the alternatives and mark the corresponding circle, according to the case, for which you keep in mind the following definitions:

Circle 01. Government Employee: is a person who works or has worked for the national or municipal government, such as: Government worker, Ministry of Agricultural and Livestock Development (MIDA), autonomous or semi-autonomous institutions like the Savings Bank, Social Security Fund, and state companies like the Institute of National Water Systems and Sewer Systems (IDAAN), Authority of the Inter-oceanic Region (ARI), and receive for their work remuneration in the form of wage or salary.

[To the left of the text is a picture of an office worker.]

Circle 02. Private Company Employee: is a person who works or has worked for a private owner and receives remuneration in the form of wage, salary, commission, paid by the job or in kind. Example: agricultural worked, sellers in a grocery store, employee in a shoe factory, accounting head, executive secretary, etc.

[To the left of the text is a picture of a person working.]

Circle 03. Employee in the Canal Commission or Defense Sites: is a person who used to work for the Canal Commission or Defense Sites (Army [in English]) and receives for the work remuneration in the form of wage or salary.


[p. 97]

Circle 04. Employee of a Non-Profit Institution: is a person who works or has worked for and Non-Profit Institution, example: National Association for the nature conservation, House of Hope, Caritas, Remar"

[To the right of the text is a picture.]

Circle 05. Domestic Servant: is a person who works or has worked for a single home different than their own, doing activities and receives for the work a salary in money or in kind; example: domestic employee, gardener, chauffer, cook, house keeper, butler, etc.

Circle 06. Independent or own-account: is a person who runs or who has run their own economic company or private business or manages or has managed a profession or office in an independent form and is not in charge of any employees. It can be work alone or with an associate; example: Bus driver, traveling salesperson, dress maker at home, shoe shiner, etc.

[To the left of the text is a picture of a person sawing a piece of wood.]

Circle 07. Owner or Employer: One who runs or has run their own economic business (alone or with associates), or manages on their own account a profession or office, that always is in charge of one or more employees who receive salaries in money or in kind.

Circle 08. Family Worker: is a person who manages or has managed an occupation for 15 hours or more during the reference week, without receiving remuneration, in a company or business run by a member of their own family.

Circle 09. Member of a Production Cooperative: is a person who has participated or participates in an associative type of company that produces an article or good, that requires some grade of transformation. Generally the members provide themselves the decision making power and the benefits go back to or are distributed by way of cooperative returns; examples: Cooperative of Work and Food Storage 1 de mayo, Cooperative of Producers of Mola [a type of Panamanian blouse], R. L.

Considering that it may prove to be too simple to determine who is an Employee or salary earner (Of the Government, Private Company, Canal Commission, etc.) let us analyze the rest of the occupational categories and the following cases a little more:

[p. 100]

a. You are enumerating the dwelling of Mr. Juan Batista, when asking him about his place of work he says the he works in the workshop Vargas-Matamoros (question 19). Before marking the circle, be careful in making the correct classification asking additional questions like the following:
Are you the owner or employee of this business? If he is the owner ask if he is in charge of employees. If the response is yes classify him as owner or employer (circle 07); on the contrary if he has no employees, classify him as independent or for their own account (circle 06).
In the case that Mr. Batista declares to work for other persons, classify him as private company employee (circle 02).

b. You will be able to determine the category of occupation of the persons in some cases, by means of question 18 (occupation). Example: a shoe shiner, traveling salesperson, car washer, scrap seller, newspaper seller and other occupations that persons do in which they logically are not in charge of any employees. These persons can be classified automatically as independent or for their own account (circle 06).

c. In equal form the category of occupation (question 21) will be able to be determined through the response given to question 16 (place of work). Example: If a person states that they worked in the National Environmental Authority, the Institute of National Water Systems and Sewer Systems or any other governmental dependency, you can automatically classify them as Government Employee (Circle 01). Equally if a person works in their house or in the street, they can be classified for their own account (circle 06).

d) Inasmuch as the family worker, you may think that it concerns a person who works in a family house, nevertheless, if you carefully read the definition, it will become clear to you that it concerns a person who works 15 hours or more a week in the business of a family member without receiving a wage or a salary. In this category are included the family members of farmers who work in the same plot of land without receiving payment. Examples:

A child who works (Tuesday to Sunday) in mother's shop without receiving payment 8 hours daily.
16 year old student who used to work in the afternoon with grandfather in a farm without receiving a salary, from Wednesday to Sunday for 3 hours every day.