Gaps in Employment

Respondents age 14 and older are asked about gaps within employee-type jobs and gaps between jobs. These periods when a respondent was not working are not counted in the various created variables summarizing total weeks worked and tenure with an employer. For more information on these variables, see Tenure section and Hours Spent at Work section.

Gaps within Jobs

Regardless of how long the job lasted, the respondent is asked to report any periods of a week or more within an employee job when he or she did not work for the employer, not including paid vacations or sick days. After a within-job gap is established, follow-up questions probe for the main reason for that gap, such as on strike, on layoff, job ended but began again, or unpaid vacation or leave. Next, the respondent is asked to state the number of weeks that he or she spent looking for work or on layoff during the gap. Any respondent who is classified as not looking for work is asked for the reason (e.g., did not want to work, child care problems, vacation). Finally, female respondents who report a job that ended after their 16th birthday are also questioned on employment gaps due to pregnancy or the birth of a child.

Beginning in rounds 4 and 5, older self-employed respondents (those born in 1980-82 for round 4 and those born in 1980-83 for round 5) answer similar questions about gaps within a self-employed job. All self-employed respondents answer these questions from round 6 on. However, these questions are in a separate series from the questions for employee-type jobs to allow for more appropriate wording. Beginning in round 9, those respondents who had five or more gaps within nontraditional jobs were asked specific questions about the most recent and longest gap.

Gaps between Jobs

In rounds 1-3, the number of weeks that the respondent did not work at any employee job was calculated. For each gap between jobs, the respondent was asked to state the number of weeks he or she spent working at a freelance job or searching for another employee job. Using this information, the total number of weeks spent not working, not looking for work, or not on layoff was computed for each respondent. Those who did not report search activity were questioned on the reason that they did not look for work during that period (e.g., did not want to work, child care problems, vacation). Data was also collected on the type of search activity in which the respondent participated (e.g., contacted employer directly, contacted an employment agency, placed an ad).

In round 4, respondents born in 1983-84 were asked the same questions as all respondents in rounds 1-3. For respondents born in 1980-82, gaps when the respondent was not working at either an employee job or self-employed were identified. For each gap, the respondent was asked if that time was spent searching for another employee job. (In round 4, youths born in 1980-82 were not asked about working at a freelance job during a gap since they did not report this type of job starting in this round.)

Round 5 followed similar age restrictions and question structure as in round 4. Again for this round, respondents born in 1984 answered the questions asked in rounds 1-3. Those born in 1980-83 reported gaps when not working at an employee job or when self-employed. Respondents also reported any job search activity during these gaps.

Beginning in round 6, all respondents answer the same questions as older respondents in rounds 4 and 5.

In Round 19, respondents answered a new question asking if they had a disability that would prevent them from accepting a job during the next six months.

Gaps between Assignments

Some respondents may report a non-traditional job situation where they are on-call for the employer but have not worked for the employer for an extended period. In these cases, respondents answer questions each round about the number of weeks where they did not have work assigned to them or they chose to decline an assignment.

Comparison to Other NLS Surveys: The NLSY79 records information about gaps both within and between jobs in all survey years. Data include reasons for the gap, the total number of weeks not working, stop and start dates, and job search activity during the gap. Since 1987, female respondents have been asked about periods of paid leave due to pregnancy or the birth of a child. Similar information has been collected from the Children of the NLSY79 age 15 and older since 1994. The Original Cohort respondents provided data on gaps within jobs throughout the survey years; Mature and Young Women also answered questions on gaps between jobs beginning in 1995. For more information, consult the appropriate cohort's User's Guide.

Survey Instruments: These questions are found in the employment section of the Youth Questionnaire. Question names begin with YEMP- and roster items begin with YEMP_.