Work interruptions of person

Status: This standard was approved as a departmental standard on July 15, 1998.

Definition

Work interruption is applied to a person who worked at a job or business during some preceding time period (commonly used reference periods are the last 12 months, the previous calendar year and the past five years) and who lost or left that job or business and did not work for pay or profit for some minimum length of time, usually specified in consecutive weeks or months (or even years). A work interruption comprises spells of unemployment and time not in the labour force (in all cases, Labour Force Survey definitions should be used to determine the respondent's labour force status). If a person leaves or loses one job but starts another with a minimal time (e.g., one week) intervening, the interruption may be ignored. For purposes of standardization it is recommended that two reference periods be used: the last calendar year and the last five years. Work interruptions must be of one week or more in duration. The start and end dates need to be determined for each interruption.

Person refers to an individual and is the unit of analysis for most social statistics programs.

Usage

The terms absence from work and work interruption are used almost interchangeably to denote a period of not-working time followed by periods of paid employment (or working in one's own business). The key issue to be considered during the not-working time is whether one still has some attachment, claim or expectation of returning to a job or business. If the answer is "yes", then one is absent from a job and the situation is termed absence from work: if "no", then one has lost or left a job for some reason. In the latter case, if one subsequently resumes working, even if it is with the same employer, then the period of not working is a work interruption. An absence from work may be paid or unpaid, but a work interruption is always unpaid (pay being wages or salary from an employer).

Absence from work is often confused with work interruption (see below). For example, the Absence from work survey, which has been conducted annually for more than 20 years, collects data for paid employees about absences of two weeks or more in the previous calendar year. But because no check is made whether the employer before the absence and the one after are the same, some of these absences may more accurately be considered as work interruptions. In fact, one of the first questions on the survey makes reference to "leav(ing) a job, or (being) absent from work for 2 or more consecutive weeks".

The concept of work interruption is applied to a person who worked at a job or business during some preceding time period (commonly used reference periods are the last 12 months, the previous calendar year and the past five years) and who lost or left that job or business and did not work for pay or profit for some minimum length of time, usually specified in consecutive weeks or months (or even years). A work interruption comprises spells of unemployment and time not in the labour force (in all cases, Labour Force Survey definitions should be used to determine the respondent's labour force status). If a person leaves or loses one job but starts another with a minimal time (e.g., one week) intervening, the interruption may be ignored. For purposes of standardization it is recommended that two reference periods be used: the last calendar year and the last five years. Work interruptions must be of one week or more in duration. The start and end dates need to be determined for each interruption.

Conformity to relevant internationally recognized standards

There are no relevant internationally recognized standards.

Measurements

  • 'Duration of work interruption' is expressed as individual weeks of interruption from 1 to 104 (may extend beyond reference year).

    Note: Duration of work interruption refers to the duration of a work interruption in the reference period for a person who worked at a job or business during the reference period and who ceased working at least once. July 15, 1998 to current

Classifications

Additional information

See:

Relation to previous version

  • Work interruptions of person July 15, 1998 to current

    This is the current standard.

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