BHPS work-life histories

• The case of BHPS employment status and occupational data
  • A very important subject area
  • Large amounts of data collected
  • An inevitably complex structure inhibiting end-users
    • current status
    • inter-wave histories
    • disjoint retrospective histories
    • information in 26 different data files by Wave 12

`Panel' files
Filename		Wave		Start of fieldwork		Description
AINDRESP		1		9/91		The main `individual respondent' file, containing inter alia detailed information on current status at the date of interview
AJOBHIST		1		9/91		Employment status spells between 1/9/90 and interview
BINDRESP		2		9/92		Wave 2 equivalent of AINDRESP
BJOBHIST		2		9/92		All employment status spells between 1/9/91 and interview
CINDRESP		3		9/93		Wave 3 equivalent of AINDRESP
CJOBHIST		3		9/93		All employment status spells between 1/9/92 and interview
DINDRESP		4		9/94		Wave 4 equivalent of AINDRESP
DJOBHIST		4		9/94		All employment status spells between 1/9/93 and interview
EINDRESP		5		9/95		Wave 5 equivalent of AINDRESP
EJOBHIST		5		9/95		All employment status spells between 1/9/94 and interview
FINDRESP		6		9/96		Wave 6 equivalent of AINDRESP
FJOBHIST		6		9/96		All employment status spells between 1/9/95 and interview
GINDRESP		7		9/97		Wave 7 equivalent of AINDRESP
GJOBHIST		7		9/97		All employment status spells between 1/9/96 and interview
HINDRESP		8		9/98		Wave 8 equivalent of AINDRESP
HJOBHIST		8		9/98		All employment status spells between 1/9/97 and interview

Long-term retrospective files (LTR)
Filename		Wave		Start of fieldwork		Description
BLIFEMST		2		9/92		Information on all employment status spells since first leaving full-time education until the date of interview
CLIFEJOB		3		9/93		Information on all jobs held since first leaving full-time education until the beginning of data collection in the main panel