Population Census 1996
South Africa, 1996
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Reference ID
ZAF_1996_PHC_v01_M
Producer(s)
Statistics South Africa
Collection(s)
Metadata
Created on
Jan 27, 2012
Last modified
May 01, 2014
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Employment status (econactt)
Data file: SA Census 1996 Person_v01
Overview
Valid:
0
Invalid:
0
Type:
Discrete
Decimal:
0
Width:
8
Range:
1 - 99
Format:
Numeric
Questions and instructions
Literal question
Household questionnaire: Q17/18.1 Does (the person) work? (For the person who is not working), is (the person) one of the following...
Personal questionnaire: Q17/18.1 Does this person work (for pay, profit or family gain)? (For the person who is not working), is this person one of the following…
Special enumeration questionnaire: Not included
Personal questionnaire: Q17/18.1 Does this person work (for pay, profit or family gain)? (For the person who is not working), is this person one of the following…
Special enumeration questionnaire: Not included
Categories
| Value | Category |
|---|---|
| 1 | Employed |
| 2 | Unemployed, looking for work |
| 3 | Not working - not looking for work |
| 4 | Not working - housewife/home-maker |
| 6 | Not working - scholar/full-time student |
| 7 | Not working - pensioner/retired person |
| 8 | Not working - disabled person |
| 9 | Not working - not wishing to work |
| 10 | Not working - none of the above |
| 97 | N/A: Aged <15 |
| 98 | N/A: Institution |
| 99 | Unspecified |
Warning: these figures indicate the number of cases found in the data file. They cannot be interpreted as summary statistics of the population of interest.
Description
Definition
This variable reflects the employment status of the enumerated person
Universe
All persons, aged 15 and older, enumerated on household and personal questionnaires at night between Wednesday 9 October and Thursday 10 October 1996.
Source of information
South African Census 1996 household and personal, summary book for hostels or special enumeration questionnaire - completed by the enumerator or the respondent
Others
Notes
Employment status refers to whether a person is employed, unemployed or not economically active. The two sub-categories of employed and unemployed together constitute the category economically active. The category of not economically active includes all those who are not currently regarded as part of the labour force.
Employee status is derived from two questions – Q17 ‘Does the person work?’ and Q18.1 relating to the reasons a person is not working. As all the information from the individual questions is included in the derived variable, the individual variables were not required on the final census database.
The census questionnaire provided respondents with some guidance as to what constituted ‘work’. It was defined as including working for pay, profit or family gain. The following activities were listed as work:
• Formal work for a salary or wage
• Informal work such as making things for sale or selling things or rendering a service
• Work on a farm or the land, whether for a wage or as part of the household’s farming activities.
If the person did not fall in one of these categories, they were to be considered not working and were required to answer the following question on the reason for not working. The following response options
were listed and no additional definitions or prompts were provided:
• Unemployed and looking for work
• Unemployed, not looking for work, but would accept work
• Housewife/home-maker
• Child not yet scholar
• Scholar/full-time student
• Pensioner/retired person
• Disabled person
• Not wishing to work
• None of the above
There are few ‘Unspecified’ codes as, in most cases, coders followed the instructions to allocate codes of ‘No’ (Not working) and ‘None of the above’ where no information related to employment was provided. Stats SA has developed two definitions of unemployment for use in household surveys – a strict and an expanded definition. The strict definition is the official definition. The two definitions differ in the requirements for people to be actively looking for work and available to start work. It is not possible to replicate either definition in the census as the information obtained does not include sufficient detail.
However, the first category of unemployed (‘Unemployed and looking for work’) is roughly equivalent to the expanded definition of unemployment used for other surveys. The second category of unemployed (‘Unemployed, not looking for work, but would accept work’), despite the inclusion of the word ‘unemployed’, was treated as not economically active as it does not include the requirement that the person be looking for work. As such, it has been renamed ‘Not working – not looking for work’ in the dataset to ensure it is treated correctly in analysis.
While all persons aged 5 years and older were asked the questions on employment, the final census file includes only the data for persons aged 15 years and older. As a result, the category of ‘Child not yet scholar’ was set to ‘Unspecified’ as it is not applicable to persons aged over 15.
Employee status is derived from two questions – Q17 ‘Does the person work?’ and Q18.1 relating to the reasons a person is not working. As all the information from the individual questions is included in the derived variable, the individual variables were not required on the final census database.
The census questionnaire provided respondents with some guidance as to what constituted ‘work’. It was defined as including working for pay, profit or family gain. The following activities were listed as work:
• Formal work for a salary or wage
• Informal work such as making things for sale or selling things or rendering a service
• Work on a farm or the land, whether for a wage or as part of the household’s farming activities.
If the person did not fall in one of these categories, they were to be considered not working and were required to answer the following question on the reason for not working. The following response options
were listed and no additional definitions or prompts were provided:
• Unemployed and looking for work
• Unemployed, not looking for work, but would accept work
• Housewife/home-maker
• Child not yet scholar
• Scholar/full-time student
• Pensioner/retired person
• Disabled person
• Not wishing to work
• None of the above
There are few ‘Unspecified’ codes as, in most cases, coders followed the instructions to allocate codes of ‘No’ (Not working) and ‘None of the above’ where no information related to employment was provided. Stats SA has developed two definitions of unemployment for use in household surveys – a strict and an expanded definition. The strict definition is the official definition. The two definitions differ in the requirements for people to be actively looking for work and available to start work. It is not possible to replicate either definition in the census as the information obtained does not include sufficient detail.
However, the first category of unemployed (‘Unemployed and looking for work’) is roughly equivalent to the expanded definition of unemployment used for other surveys. The second category of unemployed (‘Unemployed, not looking for work, but would accept work’), despite the inclusion of the word ‘unemployed’, was treated as not economically active as it does not include the requirement that the person be looking for work. As such, it has been renamed ‘Not working – not looking for work’ in the dataset to ensure it is treated correctly in analysis.
While all persons aged 5 years and older were asked the questions on employment, the final census file includes only the data for persons aged 15 years and older. As a result, the category of ‘Child not yet scholar’ was set to ‘Unspecified’ as it is not applicable to persons aged over 15.