Unemployment history
Definition
Unemployment history defines the year that a person last worked. People in full-time and part-time employment are not counted in this variable.
Classification
Total number of categories 14
| Code | Name |
|---|---|
| 01 | Short-term unemployed, Last worked in 2011 |
| 02 | Short-term unemployed, Last worked in 2010 |
| 03 | Long-term unemployed, Last worked in 2009 |
| 04 | Long-term unemployed, Last worked in 2008 |
| 05 | Long-term unemployed, Last worked in 2007 |
| 06 | Long-term unemployed, Last worked in 2006 |
| 07 | Last worked in 2001-2005, Last worked in 2005 |
| 08 | Last worked in 2001-2005, Last worked in 2004 |
| 09 | Last worked in 2001-2005, Last worked in 2003 |
| 10 | Last worked in 2001-2005, Last worked in 2002 |
| 11 | Last worked in 2001-2005, Last worked in 2001 |
| 12 | Last worked before 2001 |
| 13 | Never worked |
| XX | No code required - comprises schoolchildren and full-time students living away from home during term time, all those under the age of 16 and people in work in the week before census day. |
Source question or variables
ACTLW (Derived variable)
AGE (Derived variable)
AVAILWORK (Primary variable)
DOB (Primary variable)
EVERWORK (Primary variable)
EMPLYGRP (Primary variable)
LASTYRWRKPS11 (Primary variable)
LOOKWORK (Primary variable)
OTHACT (Primary variable)
STUDENT (Primary variable)
TERMIND (Primary variable)
WAITWORK (Primary variable)
Known Quality Issues
There are a number of people in the data who have an age at last year worked (LASTYRWRKPS11) of less than 16. Although not impossible, this seems unlikely in the cases when the age at last year worked is very young. This data issue was not identified during the edit and imputation process, but was noted later and investigated. Some of these records are due to the incorrect scanning of the value for last year worked, however other reasons included issues with scanning of the date of birth. There were other cases where the data was accurately captured but resulted in implausible values.
Analysis of the impact of this error on the data reported on UNEMPHISTPS11 was carried out. Overall 1% of unemployed people have an age last worked of less than 16 years, and 0.1% of cases have age last worked of less than 13 years.