Hours Worked in Employment

Requirements

Mandatory

The following instructions are mandatory in order to collect satisfactory data for the hours worked in employment variable. The question text should contain instructions which clearly state:

• whether the respondent should respond with actual hours or with their usual hours worked in employment per week
• whether hours in main job or other job(s) (or both) are required
• how to calculate the main job if a respondent has more than one job (ie the job the respondent usually works the most hours in)
• that whole hours are required (instructions on rounding fractions of hours are discretionary)
• the reference period for calculating hours worked in employment. For example, a reference period of a fortnight may be used in the survey question, but should be converted to hours worked in employment per week for input and output.

Three blank boxes are required for recording the hours worked in employment because the classification for hours worked in employment extends to the theoretical maximum number of 168 hours per week.

Discretionary

The following instructions are discretionary. Ideally they should be included in the question text, however if space on the questionnaire is limited the provision of these instructions in attached help notes is beneficial. The question text or help notes may include instructions which state:

• that regular overtime should be included in the calculation of usual hours worked in employment
• that unpaid work in a family business or family farm should be included in the calculation of hours worked in employment
• that unpaid work (apart from that in a family business or farm) should not be included in the calculation of hours worked in employment
• how to calculate usual hours if different hours are worked from one week to the next, (ie average hours over the last four weeks should be calculated).

Response to a question on hours worked in employment can be assisted by referring to another question or questions. For example “How many hours to the nearest hour, do you usually work each week in the job you gave details about in questions….”. This can be especially beneficial in self–completion survey questionnaires. Reference to a separate question ensures respondents can readily refer to the correct job (main or other) for which they are to give their hours of employment.

Example

The questionnaire module below consists of three separate questions which, as an entity, collect the hours worked in employment variable. It is an example of a questionnaire module which meet the requirements documented in this statistical standard. Other questionnaire modules may vary in format but should conform to the requirements contained in this statistical standard.

How many hours did …. Actually work on each of the following days last week? Include overtime, but exclude time–off.

Then …. Worked:

[] [] [] HOURS IN ….(MAIN) job, AND
[] [] [] HOURS IN …. OTHER JOBS, THAT IS A TOTAL OF
[] [] [] HOURS IN ALL JOBS

Was the total number of hours….worked last week….usual number of hours?

[] YES
[] NO

How many hours does….usually work each week, including overtime, in (ALL)….job(s)

[] [] [] HOURS IN MAIN JOB
[] [] [] HOURS IN OTHER JOBS
[] [] [] HOURS IN ALL JOBS