Time and tenure questions provide information on a respondent's time spent with an employer, time spent away from an employer during which the employment contract was maintained or renewed, and periods of time when the respondent was neither working for an employer nor serving in the active forces.

• Hours Worked
• Shift and Times Worked
• Periods Working for an Employer Including Unpaid and Paid Leave
• Total Tenure with Employer
• Periods Not Working or in the Military

Hours worked

During each survey, information is collected on:

• the number of hours during the survey week that a respondent worked at all jobs
• the number of hours per day and week usually worked at the CPS job; and
• the usual hours per day and per week worked at the non-CPS Jobs #1-5

Post-1987 surveys differentiated, for each job, the number of hours worked at home from the hours worked at the place of employment. Follow-up questions double check that these at-home hours are included in the total hours reported working. The creation procedures for the 'Hourly Rate of Pay 'variables factor in all values.

Shift and times worked

Data on the type of shift usually worked at the respondent's current or most recent (CPS) job, such as "day shift," "evening shift," or "split shift," have been collected during all but the 1986 and 1987 surveys. Beginning with the 1986 survey, information on the actual times (24 hour clock) that a respondent usually began and ended the CPS job is available. Coding categories for the 1988 and 1989 shift variables were collapsed. All respondents were asked a follow-up question beginning in 1990 on the actual or usual time work began and ended during the last week (or most recent week) they worked.

Periods working for an employer including unpaid and paid leave

Periods of time that a respondent worked for a specific employer can be identified through information collected on dates that employment began and ended. Those respondents with a stop date for an employer are asked for information on the reason the job ended and whether a new job was lined up before the respondent left this job. Interrupted employment with an employer of one week or more during which the respondent was either on unpaid leave or unpaid vacation is also detailed. The total number of such separate within-job gaps is identified, along with the specific start and stop dates and the main reason for not working, such as "on strike," "on layoff," "quit job but returned to same employer," "job ended but began again," "attending school," "health problems," "childcare problems," "pregnancy," and so forth.

Information also is available on whether the respondent was looking for work during "some," "none," or "all" of the weeks during a period of not working. For those respondents who indicate that "some" weeks were spent looking for work or on layoff, information is available on the number of weeks duration for each period of unemployment or layoff, the total number of weeks spent looking and not looking, and the main reason he or she was not looking for work. Users should note that the specific week numbers during which the respondent was unemployed versus out of the labor force within a single gap are not available if both statuses apply. Information is collected only on the total number of weeks that were spent in either of the two nonemployed labor force statuses. For example, an eight-week within-job gap that occurred between week number 152 and week number 160 may identify two of those weeks as weeks of unemployment and six of those weeks as out of the labor force. It will not designate the specific week numbers 154 and 155 as the precise two weeks that the respondent was unemployed as opposed to out of the labor force.

During post-1987 surveys, female respondents (only) are asked for information on the total number of separate periods of paid leave from an employer which were taken due to either pregnancy or birth of a child. Start and stop dates are collected for each period of leave.

Types of information collected about periods of paid and unpaid leave are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Gaps in employment

Total tenure with employer

The variable series 'Total Tenure (in Weeks) with Employer as of Interview Date Job #X' is created from

• the start (or last interview) and stop dates for an employer
• a match, if any, of employers identified during the current interview as the same employer from a previous interview year

Tenure in weeks with an employer is first calculated for the period between the date of last interview and the current interview date (tenure since the date of last interview). Next, a match with employers reported during the previous interview is attempted. If such a match is established, the total tenure in weeks with the matched employer from the previous interview is added to the total weeks tenure with that employer since the date of last interview. This creates a cumulative tenure in weeks with that employer from the time the employer was first reported up to the most recent week worked. Tenure with employers for whom no match exists in the previous interview is simply the tenure with that employer since the date of last interview. Further information on matching employers can be found in Appendix 9: Linking Employers through Survey Years and in Appendix 18: NLSY79 Work History Data included in the NLSY79 Codebook Supplement.

Tenure is cumulative through contiguous survey years, beginning on the first date the respondent reports working for the employer (the start date) and ending on the date the respondent reports leaving the employer (the stop date). If a respondent started working for an employer before or on the date of last interview, tenure since the date of last interview is added to the already existing time to reflect total tenure. If the respondent is working for the employer on the current interview date, the stop date is set to the current date. If the respondent reports working for this employer at the next interview, tenure between interviews is added to the total tenure figure.

For example, imagine the following scenario. A respondent starts working for COMPANY A on July 7, 1989, and is interviewed on July 31, 1989. She is still working for that company on August 1, 1990, when she is interviewed again. She continues to work for the same company until May 15, 1991 when she leaves. She is interviewed again on August 15, 1991. A cumulative tenure in number of weeks would be constructed in three stages:

• T1 = [Tenure from July 7, 1989 - July 31, 1989 at the 1989 interview]
• T2 = T1 + [Tenure from August 1, 1989 - August 1, 1990 at 1990 interview]
• T3 = T2 + [Tenure from August 2, 1990 - May 15, 1991 (time worked for COMPANY A between 1990 and 1991 interview, before respondent left)]
• TENURE WITH COMPANY A (at 1989 interview) = T1
• TENURE WITH COMPANY A (at 1990 interview) = T2
• TENURE WITH COMPANY A (at 1991 interview) = T3

Periods not working or in the military

During each survey, information is collected on up to six periods since the date of last interview during which a respondent is not affiliated with an employer or in the active military. Data available for each period of not working include month, day, and year that the period began and ended; the specific week numbers associated with the period of not working; whether any of these weeks (coded as "none," "some," or "all") was spent looking for work or on layoff; and, the number of weeks spent looking for work or on layoff, the number of weeks the respondent was out of the labor force, and the main reason that the respondent was not looking for work. All respondents with between-job gaps are asked the questions on periods of not working.