Interviewer instructions
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.
Question No. 17: What was the reason for not looking for work last week?
Read all the alternatives presented in the questionnaire and begin to mark the circle according to the response of the person. If a person responds affirmatively in any of the circles 1 to 3 (Does occasional jobs, looked before and waits or news or impossible to find work), mark the corresponding circle and continue with question 18.
[p. 89]
For those who respond "Yes" in any of the circles 4 to 8 (Retiree or pensioned, Student, Worker in the home or Homemaker, Rentier or Other condition), mark the corresponding circle, go to question 23 and draw a diagonal line through questions 18 to 22.
Keep in mind the following definitions:
Does occasional jobs: A person who does not look for employment because they depend on a job that they do periodically and that generates enough income to survive. Example: sailors, contractors who during the reference week were found resting in their houses.
[To the right of the text is a picture of a person working.]
Looked for work and is waiting for news: has looked for work before and is waiting to be called or sent for.
[To the right of the text is a picture of a person reading the classified ads.]
Impossible to find work: A person who claims to have not looked for work during the reference week since they have looked before and have not found any.
[To the left of the text is a person looking through a magnifying glass [!].]
Retired or pensioned: A person who has stopped working and is receiving income as retirement payments or pensions. Do not include persons who receive food pensions for divorce or separation.
[To the right of the text is a picture of a two persons.]
Student: A person dedicated only and exclusively to studying
[To the left of the text is a picture of a student.]
Household worker or housewife [explicitly feminine]: Persons of one or other sex, without managing any economic activity dedicate themselves to taking care of their own homes. For example, the homemakers and other family members that are charged with the attention of the house and the children. These persons do only and exclusively domestic tasks and chores in their own home and are not looking for work, are not retired, or pensioned or live on investments, or attend school.
[To the left of the text is a picture of a woman carrying a plant.]
[p. 90]
Rentier: a person who receives money or investments from a business, company, real estate, renting of land, machinery, etc.
[To the right of the text is a picture of a person.]
Other condition: a person who, without being classified in any of the groups above, does no economic activity. This person can be idle, physically or mentally handicapped, etc.
[To the right of the text is a picture of the handicapped logo.]
If a person is dedicated to studying and also works, they should be marked in question 14 in circle 1 (Yes); equally, if a person is retired and also works, they should be marked in circle 1 in question 14. In summary, the fact that a person works prevails in the classification of question 14 to 17.
When classifying the population you should take special care with persons who declare to be " Worker in the home, Homemaker" or " Student" because the first group at times also does remunerated jobs like; clean, iron, sew, do hair, paint fingernails, make candy or food to sell, etc. in their own home or outside of it, but because they spend little time in these labors they forget to supply this information.
On the other hand, some students after class or on weekends dedicate themselves to cleaning shoes, selling newspapers, supermarket packer, 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.
If it comes about that a person worked during this period even though it was partially, should be classified in the category of Employed which corresponds to the Economically Active Population.
For the case of the workers of the home or homemakers who attend school, that is to say, that they have been marked in circle 1 (Yes) in question 10 of Section VI. Educational Characteristics, you should mark circle 5 (Student) of the question 17 of Section VII. Economic Characteristics.