For people 12 years or older:
[Questions 22-38 are asked of people aged 12 or older.]

27. During the past week, did (Name) work for at least an hour, not including domestic chores? (PerAL01)

This module is directed towards people 12 years of age or alder and has the objective of determining if, from point of view of the economic activity, the members of the household are employed, unemployed, or inactive.  Additionally, it seeks to obtain information about the characteristics of the occupations (tasks, activity sector, etc.).

During the past week, did he/she work for at least an hour, not including domestic chores?

Work is any task that a person carries out and for which it is his/her primary responsibility, independently of whether or not receiving remuneration in money or in kind, or if he/she carries it out without remuneration in a family business.

The condition of "at least one hour during the work week previous to the interview" corresponds to the recommendations of the International Organization of Work (OIT) for the measuring of work statistics.

[p. 104]

Performing odd jobs must be considered as work since, according to the definition given, any task carried out for one or more hours for remuneration in money or in kind, is an occupation and therefore the corresponding sequence in the questionnaire should be completed.

When the informant says that he/she carried out different odd jobs, you should specify the last one performed or the one to which the most time was dedicated during the reference week.

Completing household chores is not considered work, as long as they are not carried out for a third person.  

Service and/or volunteer work is not considered work.

For example:

• Juan earns his living singing on the bus.  The activity that he carries out is considered work.
• Leticia is a university student and works as a volunteer for an NGO on the weekends. The activity that she carries out is not considered work.
• Maria helps her husband looking after the family store without receiving remuneration. The activity carried out is considered work.

Did he/she do something outside the household, or helped in a business or collaborated in the care of animals, crops, or gardens that were not for self-consumption?

This question intends on identifying work situations not perceived as such by the informant. This is a very important question in the case of rural areas, where oftentimes the people forget to consider family work carried out by the women and adolescents but not remunerated.

If the person carried out some task at home "for outside the household," you must mark the option "yes" even if no money was received for the said task.

Even though he/she didn't work last week, does he/she have some work or business that he/she will surely return to?

This question seeks to detect the people that were absent from work during the reference week due to the leave (vacations, sickness or accident, studies, etc.), lack of raw materials, bad weather, machine failure, or any type of temporary reason, but that have a job that they will surely return to.

Mark the option "yes" if the person has certainty he/she will return to work.

During the last four weeks, was he/she looking for work or trying to establish a business?

A person is looking for work when he/she carries out some concrete effort to incorporate himself/herself to the job market during a specific period (in this case, the four weeks prior to the moment of the census), trying to secure employment or establish a business or profession.

Mark the option "yes" if the person has tried to obtain employment or establish himself/herself with a business or profession through distinct processes by different means during the reference period.

Has he/she worked before?

The objective of this question is to determine if the person is unemployed and looking for work for the first time, or is unemployed and has had employment in the past.

According to the response obtained, continue the interview according to the sequence that the system indicates.