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1997 Employment Structure Survey Explanation of terms

1. Age

Age is that as of September 30, 1997.

2. Marital status

Marital status is classified as follows according to the actual situation, regardless of the legal status of the family register.

Never married -- Person who has not been married yet.
Married -- Person who has a spouse (wife or a husband).
Widowed or divorced -- Person who has not been married, after parting from a spouse by death or divorce.

3. Usual Economic Activity

Persons aged 15 and over are classified as follows according to status in employment:

Working persons -- Those who are usually at work and will continue to work after the survey for the purpose of pay or profit. And persons with a job but not a work are included, too.
Family workers are regarded as working persons when they are usually engaged in a work, even if unpaid.
Not working persons -- Those who aren't usually at work. Persons who are temporarily at work but not usually at work are included.

4. Status in Employment and Form of Employment

Status in Employment

Self-employed workers -- Those who operate business on their own account, such as sole proprietors of stores or factories, owner of farms, medical practitioners, lawyers, authors, etc.
Family workers -- Those who work on a farm or business operated by their family members.
Family workers generally refer to unpaid family workers, but those who work for their family business with a small amount of payment are included in this category.
Employees -- Those who are employed with payment such as employees of companies, stores, public corporations, government organizations, etc.
- Executives of corporations -- Employees who work as officers of private companies or public corporations such as managing directors or authors of joint-stock companies, representative staff of limited or unlimited partnerships, directors or supervisors of trade unions or associations, directors or supervisors of public corporations, etc.

Form of Employment

Employees other than the executives of corporations are classified as follows according to how their positions are called at their workplace:
Regular staff;
Part-timers;
Side-workers (Arubaito);
Contracted part-timers (Shokutaku);
Dispatched workers by worker dispatching undertaking;
Others.

There is a case that the executives of corporations are included in the category of the employees.

5. Industry

Industry refers to the kind of business of establishment where a person works. But, for dispatched workers, it refers to the kind of business of establishment from which they are dispatched.
The industrial classification in this survey is edited on the basis of "Standard Industrial Classification for Japan". It is classified into major groups(14 items) and intermediate groups(48 items).

6. Occupation

Occupation refers to the kind of work in which a person engaged.
The occupational classification in this survey is edited on the basis of "Standard Occupational Classification for Japan". It is classified into major groups(10 items) and intermediate groups(25 items).

7. Annual working days, regularity of work and weekly working hours

Annual working days
Annual working days are largely classified according to the number of days that a person worked per year as follows:
200 days and over;
Less than 200 days.
Regularity of work
The persons working for less than 200 days per year are classified according to the regularity of work as follows:
Regularly working persons:
Those who work almost regularly.
Seasonally working persons:
Those who work only in a certain season due to the seasonal nature of their jobs (agriculture, fisheries, etc.).
Irregularly working persons:
Other than regularly or seasonally working persons.
Weekly working hours
Those who work for 200 days or over per year and regularly working persons are classified according to weekly working hours.
Weekly working hours refers to usual working hours in a week irrespective of working hours designated by working regulations, etc.

8. Annual income

Annual income refers to annual income (including tax) from one's main job.

This category does not apply to family worker, and only the total includes family workers on the tables by annual income.

Annual income of self-employed worker -- This is the net profit (gross sales minus necessary expenses) during the preceding one year.
Annual income of employee -- This is the total amount of wages, salary, bonuses, allowances, etc. (excluding payments in kind) during the preceding one year.
Annual income of household -- Annual income of household is the sum (including taxes) of annual income (October 1, 1996 to September 30, 1997) that household head, spouse of household head and other related members earned.

9. Change of usual economic activity over the year

Persons aged 15 and over are classified into the following categories according to the change of usual economic activity and job over the year:

Did not change a job -- Those who are working and also were working a year ago under the same employer.
Changed a job -- Those who are working and also were working a year ago, but the current employer is different from the one a year ago.
Newly engaged in a job -- Those who were not working a year ago and have taken new jobs since.
Left a job -- Those who were working a year ago, have left the jobs since, and are not working.
Not working continuously -- Those who are not working and also were not working a year ago.

10. Previous job

Previous job refers to the main job that the person was engaged in before taking the present job.
As to those who changed or left a job, it is defined as the job of a year ago.
As to those who did not change the present job, those who newly engaged in job, those who don't work continuously, if they have the experiences of leaving a job more than a year ago, it is defined as the job they left.

11. Desire for work

Persons aged 15 and over are classified as follows according to desire for work:

Working persons

Wishing to continue the present job -- Those who wish to continue the present job, other than wishing to have additional jobs.
Wishing to have additional jobs -- Those who wish to have additional jobs, being engaged in the present job.
Wishing to change the job -- Those who wish to change the present job.
Wishing to stop working -- Those who wish to stop working, leaving the present job.

Not working persons

Wishing to work -- Those who wish to be engaged in any jobs for wages or salary.
Not wishing to work -- Those who don't wish to work.

12. Whether seeking a job

"Working persons who wish to have additional jobs or wish to change the present job", "Not working persons who wish to work" are classified as follows according to whether they actually seek a job or not:
"Seeking a job";
"Not seeking a job".
Methods used to seek a job are as follows:

Application to the public employment security office.
Direct application to a prospective employer.
Consultation with school or acquaintances, etc.
Application by looking at classified advertisement, recruiting magazines, etc.
Procured business funds.

13. Rates on economic activity

Rate of "Did not change a job" -- the proportion of those who did not change a job to those who are working.
Rate of "Changed a job" -- the proportion of those who changed a job to those who were working a year ago.
Rate of "Newly engaged in a job" -- the proportion of those who newly engaged in a job to those who are working.
Rate of "Left a job" -- the proportion of those who left a job to those who were working a year ago.
Rate of "Not working continuously" -- the proportion of those who are not working continuously to those who are not working.
Rate of "Seeking a job" -- the proportion of those who are seeking a job to those who are not working.
Rate of "Actively seeking a job and currently available for work" -- the proportion of those who are actively seeking a job and currently available for work.

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