Live Syllabus

DEFINITION:

Code primary employment status in the month prior to the evaluation.

Determine primary status by using the following prioritization, regardless of the number of hours worked: competitive employment, degree-oriented education, taking care of house or family, job-directed/on-the-job training, supported employment, sheltered employment, non-directed coursework, volunteer work, retirement (age-related), retirement (disability-related), and no productive activity.

*The purpose of the employment variables (211a-212) is to record the extent to which participants are engaging in productive work and, also, their personal earning power (211i). Whether employment is legal or illegal is not relevant to coding any of the employment variables. (But see NOTE below about collecting information about illegal employment.)

CODE:

02 Full-time student (regular class)
03 Part-time student (regular class)
04 Special education/other non-regular education
05 Competitively employed (minimum wage or greater, legal or illegal employment, *includes on leave with pay)
07 Taking care of house or family
08 Special employed (sheltered workshop, supportive employment, has job coach)
09 Retired (age)
10 Unemployed (looking for work in the last 4 weeks)
11 Volunteer work
12 Retired (disability)
13 Unemployed (not looking for work in the last 4 weeks, for any reason)
14 Hospitalized without pay during most of the last 4 weeks
15 Retired (other)
*16 On leave from work, not receiving pay
*55 Other
66 Variable did not exist at time of data collection
77 *Refused
99 Unknown

NOTE:

If patient is in the hospital at the time of follow-up, employment status is that status existing at the time of admission to the hospital.

Competitive subminimum wage employment such as babysitting, newspaper delivery, and piecework should be coded 77.

Code "09=Retired (age)" if respondent indicates that retirement was due to age (use respondent's definition).

Ignore non-employment sources of income such as pension, settlement, or disability income support.

If participant is in jail, code "*55=other".

If participant works in a foreign country, assume wage is not submiminum unless there is information to the contrary.

If participant is employed for only part of the month prior to the follow-up evaluation, code employment status as during the majority of the work days during that month.

If person has been hired but has not begun work, code as employed.

Code education as full-time or part-time based on self-report.

*Illegal employment includes work that is illegal (e.g., selling drugs) as well as illegally engaging in legal work (e.g., non-citizens doing construction work without a green card).

*DATA COLLECTORS: Do not ask the respondent if employment is legal or illegal. That distinction is not needed for any of the employment questions. If in the course of the interview you learn that that some or all employment is illegal, continue asking the employment questions as long as providing that information does not become uncomfortable for the respondent and would therefore risk jeopardizing the rest of the interview.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:

view all questions & answers

QUESTION: I have a 61 year-old man who worked most of his life in an engineering position. A few months ago he was laid off and went to work as a salesman in a large home supply store where he subsequently was injured. In the year after his injury, he returned to this job. However, after 24 weeks, he decided to retire because of fatigue, and because it really wasn't the kind of work he was trained to do. He has no plans to work again.

ANSWER: Recall that "employment status" is coded according to the coding priority as shown on the data collection form and in the syllabus. The coding priority is applied in cases when more than one employment status is indicated by the respondent. In your example the person says that he retired due to fatigue (presumably "disability" due to the brain injury) and to the job not being the kind of work he was trained to do (ie., an "other" reason). The coding priority lists "retired (disability)" but does not list "retired (other)", so "retired (disability" is the higher priority and is the correct choice. The other two categories you wonder about--"retired (age)" and "unemployed (not looking)"--can be ruled out because they aren't indicated by the respondent. (12-03-2004)