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. 14: Did you work last week or did you have any job from which you were temporarily absent?
Work is understood to be all labored activity that is done with the purpose of producing goods and services that have economic value in the market.
If the response is yes, mark the corresponding circle and go to question 18. If they answer " no", continue with question 15.
[To the left of the text is a picture of a woman secretary.]
In this question, persons who are employed or that is those who have a remunerated job or employment or those who have their own business like for example the owner of a grocery store, the businessperson who has their own office, etc. should respond "yes".
[To the right of the text is a picture of a welder.]
The box "yes" should be marked also, for all persons who work independently. For example:
A dress designer who works at home.
A woman who does beautician jobs.
An ironer who irons in a family house.
A gardener who works in different houses.
A woman who makes food for selling outside of the house.
A woman who weaves baskets or any other craft for selling.
A peddler or traveling salesperson.
A farmer who works a plot of land.
A child of a farmer who helps the father with the crops.
A farmer who does not have any land, but makes a living as cane cutter cleaning fields or as one who sows.
[To the right of the text are pictures of a hairstylist and a farmer.]
[p. 88]
Also, "yes" should be marked when:
A person has employment but was absent last week because of temporary incapacity, vacation or on leave because of pregnancy or other reason.
An independent worker that during the reference week worked few hours or did not work for temporary reasons. For example: a taxi driver whose car was being repaired, a candy salesperson who became sick, etc.
