Protocol - Current Employment Status

Personnel and Training Required

The interviewer must be trained to conduct personal interviews with individuals from the general population. The interviewer must be trained and found to be competent (i.e., tested by an expert) at the completion of personal interviews.* The interviewer should be trained to prompt respondents further if a "don’t know" response is provided.

* There are multiple modes to administer this question (e.g., paper-and-pencil and computer-assisted interviews).

Equipment Needs

While the source protocol was developed to be administered by a computer-assisted telephone instrument, the PhenX Working Group acknowledges these questions can be administered in a noncomputerized format (i.e., paper-and-pencil instrument). Computer software is necessary to develop computer-assisted instruments. The interviewer will require a laptop computer or handheld computer to administer a computer-assisted questionnaire.

Requirements

Requirement Category	Required
Major equipment	No
Specialized training	No
Specialized requirements for biospecimen collection	No
Average time of greater than 15 minutes in an unaffected individual	No

Mode of Administration

Interviewer-administered questionnaire

Lifestage

Adolescent, Adult

Participants

An individual aged 16 or older.

Selection Rationale

Although a variety of questions have been used to ascertain employment status, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) version was chosen because the PSID is one of the longest-standing and most comprehensive longitudinal studies of labor force participation available in the United States. An important feature of the PSID version of the employment question is that it ascertains more detailed information related to nonemployed individuals (e.g., retirees, students).

Language

Chinese, English, Other languages available at source

Standards

Standard	Name	ID	Source
Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC)	Current employment proto	63062-4	LOINC
caDSR Form	PhenX PX011301 - Current Employment Status	5791203	caDSR Form

Derived Variables

None

Process and Review

The Expert Review Panel #2 (ERP 2) reviewed the measures in the Demographics, Environmental Exposures, and Social Environments domains.

Guidance from ERP 2 includes:

• No significant changes to measure

Back-compatible: no changes to Data Dictionary

Previous version in Toolkit archive (link)

Protocol Name from Source

Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), 2007

Source

University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research. (2007). Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Ann Arbor, MI: Author. Question number BC1.

General References

Public Population Project in Genomics (P3G) Data Shaper.

Protocol ID

11301

Variables

Export Variables

Variable Name	Variable ID	Variable Description	dbGaP Mapping
PX011301_Current_Employment_Status
	PX011301010000	We would like to know about what you do more --are you working now, looking for work, retired, keeping house, a student, or what? show less	Variable Mapping
PX011301_Current_Employment_Status_Specify
	PX011301020000	We would like to know about what you do more --are you working now, looking for work, retired, keeping house, a student, or what? Other (Specify) show less	Variable Mapping

Demographics

Measure Name

Current Employment Status

Release Date

February 6, 2009

Definition

Question asking the respondent for his or her current employment status.

Purpose

The purpose of this question is to ascertain whether the respondent is presently in the labor force. Employed persons differ considerably from those who are not employed in terms of their health, health insurance, and demographic characteristics (e.g., age). Moreover, nonemployed persons are also heterogeneous, representing those who are retired, in school, homemakers, not seeking work, and others. These nonemployed individuals also vary in health, health insurance, and demographic characteristics.

Keywords

Demographics, job, employment, work, unemployed, occupation, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, PSID, SES Measures (income, education, occupation), work characteristics

Measure Protocols

Protocol ID	Protocol Name
11301	Current Employment Status