Vinnumarkaður - 01.09.1996, Qupperneq 28

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Synopsis of methods and concepts
Age. Age of respondents as of the 15th of each survey
month.
Economic activity.Economic activity is classified accord-
ing to NACE (Rev. 1) at the four-digit level. However, only
sections A to Q are reported. Section C, Mining, is collapsed
with section D, Industry, and sections P and Q are reported
together with section O. Because of its importance, the fishing
industry is reported separately as a subcategory of section D.
Underemployment. If a respondent worked less than 40
hours in the reference week for economic reasons and was
seeking a new job or a second job he or she is considered
underemployed. A person is also classified as underemployed
if he or she has a part-time job and wants to have a full-time
job and his or her actual working hours in all jobs are under 40
hours.
Status in employment. Four status categories are used in
the labour force survey: Employees, own-account workers,
employers and unpaid family workers. In this report all self-
employed persons are classified together. Employees are
persons in employment who identify themselves as employ-
ees or as “sub-contracting” employees as well as those
unemployed persons who are seeking employment as em-
ployees and have not looked for permits, licences, financial
assistance, premises or equipment in order to set up their own
business.
In November 1994 the wording of the question on status in
employment was changed in order to ensure that only unpaid
family workers were classified as such. Until then the wording
was such that self-employed with a family business could
easily be wrongly classified as unpaid family workers.
Labour force participatíon.The following interpretation
of the ILO definition of labour force status is used in the
Labour Force Survey:
Employment. All gainful employment including unpaid
work at family enterprise, unpaid work at the construction of
own house or the production of own consumption. Also
creation of works of art, even if the person has not yet recei ved
any payment. Maintaining own household is not considered
gainful employment.
Unemployment. Persons are classified as unemployed if
they did not have gainful employment in the reference week
and satisfy at least one of the following criteria:
1. Have actively been seeking work during the previous four
weeks and are able to start working within two weeks.
No distinction is made between active and passive
methods of job search.
2. Have already found a job which begins later.
3. Are on temporary layoff.
4. Have given up seeking workbut can start working within
two weeks of finding a job.
Students are only considered unemployed if they are
seeking a job with their studies or a permanent job and are
available for work within two weeks.
Employed. Persons are classified as employed if they
worked one hour or more in the reference week or were
temporarily absent from their work during that week. Persons
on maternity or paternity leave do not have to return to their
previous job in order to be considered attached to their
previous job.
Inactive persons. Persons are classified as inactive if they
are neither employed nor unemployed according to the criteria
above.
The labour force consists of employed and unemployed
persons.
Residence. Information on residence is taken from the
National Register and updated at the time of the survey with
information from contact efforts. The following regional
division is used (see Appendix 2).
The capital region consists of following municipalities:
Reykjavík, Seltjarnarnes, Hafnarfjörður, Bessastaða-
hreppur, Garðabær, Kópavogur, Mosfellsbær, Kjalames-
hreppur and Kjósarhreppur.
The following municipalities or urban areas are classified as
towns outside the capital region, usually with more than 1,000
inhabitants:
Keflavík, Grindavík, Sandgerði, Njarðvík, Akranes,
Borgarnes, Stykkishólmur, Olafsvík, Isafjörður, Bolungarvík,
Blönduós, Sauðárkrókur, Siglufjörður, Akureyri, Dalvík,
Olafsfjörður, Húsavík, Egilsstaðir, Seyðisfjörður, Eskifjörður,
Neskaupstaður, Höfn í Hornafirði, Selfoss, Hveragerði and
Vestmannaeyjar.
Municipalities and rural areas other than the above are
classified 'dsothermunicipalities.
Marital status. Classification of marital status is as re-
ported. Correction is made when reported marital status is
logically incompatible with information from the National
Register, e.g., when a respondent reports him or herself as
married without being recorded as married in the National
Register, that person would be classified as cohabiting.
Education. Primary education is classified according to
ISCED groups 1-2. Vocational education, such as apprentice-
ship in crafts, secondary school education and higher voca-
tional training is classified in ISCED groups 3-5. University
education and equivalent education is classified in ISCED
groups 6-7.
In 1995 education was classified in accordance with pro-
posals of a Statistics Iceland working group on the classifica-
tion of education. This has mainly affected the classification
of domestic science education and university entrance exami-
nation, formerly ISCED groups 2 and 5, respectively. These
are now classified in ISCED group 3. The most marked result
of this change in the coding scheme has been the increased
number of women with vocational education in ISCED groups
3-5.
Students. A respondent is classified as a student if he or
she attended day school within the four-week period prior to
the survey, received vocational training during the same period
orreported that he or she was a student having apart-timejob.
Length of service. Length of service refers to the time from
the starting date at the respective firm/establishment to the
reference month. Non-responses were imputed using two
methods. If a starting month was missing, a value was
randomly assigned, assuming the average distribution of
starting months among valid answers 1991-1994. In case of
a missing starting year, the starting year was estimated by
multiple regression using the variables age, sex and economic
activity. No one was, however, allo wed to have begun working
before the age of 10.