PART B, CHAPTER 4

The "class of worker" questions precede the industry and occupation items and provide information on who the specified person worked for. That is, did (s)he work for the government (federal, state, or local); a private for profit company; a private, not for profit company; himself/ herself in his/her own incorporated or unincorporated business or farm; or a family business or farm without pay.

"Class of worker" categories and examples of each are shown in Figure B5.

• Federal Government (for example, employees of the U.S. government, such as, IRS, Census Bureau, FBI; postal employees, employees of foreign governments)
• State Government (for example, state police, state university professors)
• Local Government (for example, city-owned power companies, most public school teachers)
• Private for profit company (for example, works for wages, salary or tips in a company that intends to make a profit)
• Private, not for profit company (for example, works for wages or salary for a church, union, association, or foundation)
• Self-employed (for example, his/her own incorporated or unincorporated business or farm)
• Family business or farm, without pay

The instrument determines each person's class of worker based on your entries in the class of worker questions (IO1INT, IO1GVT, and IO1INC). Refer to Part C, for a review of these questions. Determining class of worker before collecting other I&O information allows the instrument to tailor the I&O questions for each person. This information also helps coders determine the correct industry and occupation codes to assign.

The goal of the questions on industry/business is to get the name of the specified person's employer and to determine what kind of industry or business it is.

Census employees in Jeffersonville, Indiana assign industry codes based on employer name and the business or industry description you provide. Though some respondents are reluctant to provide the name of their employer, this information is very helpful in assigning the correct industry code. Without badgering the respondent, make every effort to collect this information. In some cases, it may only be necessary to reassure respondents of the confidentiality of the survey data.

To ensure that coders can assign an accurate industry code, you need to collect a clear and specific description of the kind of business or industry for which the specified person worked.

The following descriptions are too general:

• "he works in a mine",
• "he works for a repair service",
• "she works with computers".

In contrast, the following examples are more specific:

• he works in a copper mine,
• he works for a shoe repair service,
• she works for a company that writes computer software packages.

The distinction between the different types of industries is important. Special care must be taken to distinguish between the following industries because they are hard to code when this information is not provided:

• manufacturing
• wholesale
• retail

A manufacturing company makes and sells its products in large lots to other manufacturers, wholesalers, or retailers.

A wholesale establishment buys, rather than makes, products in large quantities for resale to retailers, industrial users, or to other wholesalers.

A retailer sells primarily to individual consumers or users but seldom makes products.

Industries that do not manufacture or sell wholesale or retail fall into the "something else" category. Examples include companies such as a car repair shop, an accounting firm, a medical center, a trucking company, or a bank.

Some firms are engaged in more than one business or activity. When this is the case, you will need to do additional probing to determine the most appropriate category. If the firm does the activities at different locations, (an example is a firm that makes copy machines at one location and chemicals used by the machines at another) collect the data for the location where the respondent works. If the firm does several activities at the same location, such as a gasoline station that also sells groceries, probe to determine which product is most important.

I&O coders assign occupation codes on the basis of the kind of work the specified person usually does and on a description of his/her most important activities or duties. The coding of the data that you collect on occupation is done in the same place that industry data are coded (Jeffersonville, Indiana). Just as was the case for the industry data, complete and accurate information is important here. Instructions on how to collect occupation/job data appear below.

This is what a person does, that is, his/her occupation (for example, civil engineer, auto mechanic, corporate lawyer). This is not necessarily his/her job title.

For some occupations, the common descriptions given by respondents are simply not sufficient for the Jeffersonville coders to assign the correct occupation code. (See Appendix 2.) Inadequate descriptions occur so frequently for some occupations that it is possible to list them and to suggest useful follow-up probes. (See Table C7.)

If you have doubts about the adequacy of a particular job or occupational description use the following rule of thumb:

One word responses to the question on occupation (for example, clerk, engineer, manager, nurse, teacher) are usually far too general to be coded accurately.

Whenever very brief responses are given to this question, probe to obtain a more specific response.

Information about usual activities or duties is very important for assigning an accurate occupation code. This information permits more accurate coding of occupation, especially when a simple job title does not provide enough information to code.

As mentioned in the introduction of this chapter, you use dependent interviewing procedures to collect industry and occupation (I&O) data in households in their second through fourth and sixth through eighth months in sample. Persons must meet both of the following conditions:

1. (S)he is employed in the current month and was employed in the previous month.
2. A complete description of I&O information was provided in the previous month that Jeffersonville was able to code properly.

If these conditions are met, the dependent I&O questions will come up. If they are not met, you will ask the usual set of I&O questions.

Dependent interviewing. Information supplied during an earlier interview (for example, MIS1) is used in the current interview (for example, MIS2), if possible. In the case of I&O, you will have access to the previous month's information and will verify that the information is still correct.

You provide respondents with I&O information from the prior month's interview and then ask:

• if (s)he still works for the same company,
• if his/her usual activities and duties have changed,
• if the information on occupation and usual activities reported in the previous month is accurate.

CPS Field Representatives have been suggesting this approach for years and now technology has made it possible. In addition to reducing respondent and interviewer burden, dependent interviewing procedures should also reduce the number of false changes in industry and occupation codes from month to month. However, to accomplish the latter, it is important that you obtain complete and accurate information from respondents during that crucial first (or fifth) monthinsample.

You will also collect industry and occupation data for a person's second job in MIS-4 and MIS-8. In these months, you ask additional questions to collect I&O information for the second job of all persons who report having more than one job. This information is coded in Jeffersonville the same way as the information on the person's main job.