Notes
GENERAL NOTES
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Unlike PCLFS, the main distinction in PCMAS is between:
- "Employed" -those who, during the reference period, carried out ANY employment (any type or any extent) - even just one occasional hour of paid work or irregular unpaid family work (ILO definition). Among the employed, the variable should distinguish, if available, between those employed at work and those on leave
- "Not Employed".
The rationale is that individuals do not generally spend their time "being unemployed", but use the time in unemployment to participate in other activities (e.g., attending school or being a housewife). Unemployment will generally be considered the primary activity only if the individual states that unemployment is his/her primary activity (e.g., unemployed and actively searching for a job) or if the individual is registered as unemployed and does not indicate significant participation in any other activity. In these cases, the individuals will be assigned to their own category among the "Not Employed".
Accordingly, "Not Employed" are classified into:
- Unemployed - individuals who are not employed according to the definition above, and who report that they are unemployed.
- Not in Labor Force / Inactive - individuals identifiable as being neither employed nor unemployed, by the definitions above. If possible, the inactive category should distinguish between the retired, students, and homemakers.
- Not Employed / Unemployed or Not in Labor Force - In some cases, it is not possible to distinguish between those who are unemployed and those who are inactive, but it is possible to determine that they are not employed. In those cases where it is not feasible to determine unemployed versus inactive status, these individuals will be coded as "Not Employed".
In some surveys individuals are classified as employed students (or employed housewives) in that case they are considered as active in PCLFS and classified student (or housewives) in PCMAS. A cross tab between the two variables will permit to distinguish employed students (or housewives) from inactive ones.
A proper documentation should particularly be done for those cases during harmonization process.
COUNTRY SPECIFIC NOTES
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Matching the datasets in other countries, and for consistency purposes, for those reported as unemployed ever previously worked in de08, the work status, occupation, economic activity and sector of activity were recoded 99 for those who are active and for whom the above mentioned variables are not available, while all employment related variables were only recoded missing for those who are identified as inactive in the relation to labor force or unemployed and never previously worked.
Those reported as working housewives or working students were considered active and their employment related variables were provided in the harmonized data.
