Table 2.
Work-related variables captured in 2021* in select CDC data systems
| Domains and variables | ABLES | BRFSS | CWHSP | CFID | NAWS | NHANES | NHIS | NOMS/NVSS | NVDRS | PRAMS | QWL | SENSOR - Pesticides | Not Collected in Sample Systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMPLOYMENT STATUS | |||||||||||||
| Employment Status Details | |||||||||||||
| Employment status (minimally employed, unemployed, or out of the labor market; can also include self-employed, unable to work, retired, student, homemaker) | ο | • | ⊗ | ⊗ | ⊗ | • | • | ο | GSS | ο ⊗ | |||
| Number of jobs currently held | • | ||||||||||||
| Duration unemployed | • | GSS | |||||||||||
| Reasons unemployed | ο | • | • | GSS | |||||||||
| Change in employment status or hours | • | ο | |||||||||||
| INDUSTRY AND OCCUPATION | |||||||||||||
| Employer, industry and occupation | |||||||||||||
| Employer name/address | • | • | • | ||||||||||
| Current industry | ο NAICS codes from states | ο free text | ⊗ | ⊗ | ⊗ | ο free text | οfree text | GSS free text | • Census code or NAICS from states | ||||
| Usual/longest held industry | 2010/15 free text | • free text | • | ||||||||||
| Current occupation | ο free text | • | • | ο free text | ο free text | ο free text | GSS free text | • Census occupation from states | |||||
| Usual/longest held occupation | • | 2010/15 free text | • free text | • | |||||||||
| Main work activity or duties | • | • | • | ο | |||||||||
| Current military service | • | • | |||||||||||
| Work History | |||||||||||||
| Years at present job/job dates | • | • | |||||||||||
| Years at all jobs/job dates | |||||||||||||
| Partial employment history | • | • | |||||||||||
| Complete employment history | Mining and other dusty jobs only | Fishing jobs only | X | ||||||||||
| Veteran status | • | • | • | GSS | |||||||||
| WORKING CONDITIONS | |||||||||||||
| Work Arrangement | |||||||||||||
| Temporary or not expecting job to last | 2010/21 | ο | |||||||||||
| Standard arrangement | 2010/15 | ο | |||||||||||
| Independent contractor | 2010/15 | ο | |||||||||||
| Temporary help agency workers | 2010 | ο | |||||||||||
| Worker provided by contract firms | • | 2010 | ο | ||||||||||
| On-call workers | 2010 | ο | |||||||||||
| Other | 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Combined temporary help agency and workers provided by contract firms | 2015 | ||||||||||||
| Combined on-call and other | 2015 | ||||||||||||
| Employer deducts taxes from pay | 2021 | ||||||||||||
| Work Schedule and Hours | |||||||||||||
| Work hours (including part-time work, long shifts) | • | • | • | ο | |||||||||
| Total hours worked at all jobs | • | ο | |||||||||||
| Number of days per week worked | • | ||||||||||||
| Work shift (e.g. day, evening, night, rotating, split) | • | 2010/15/21 | ο | ||||||||||
| Schedule control, predictability, or flexibility (choice of days off, hours off, work schedule) | 2021 | ο | |||||||||||
| Overtime (any, voluntary vs. mandatory) | ο | ||||||||||||
| Work location (work at home, reason working at home) | ο | ||||||||||||
| Work/non-work balance | 2010/15 | ο | |||||||||||
| Pay & Benefits | |||||||||||||
| Pay status (salaried, hourly, piecework) | • | ο | |||||||||||
| Salary/Wage Income | • | GSS | |||||||||||
| Household income | • | • | • | • | • | GSS | |||||||
| Income stability/Variability of earning (predictable, or varying with hours or business) | 2021 | ||||||||||||
| Income adequacy and equity | ο | ||||||||||||
| Health insurance | • | • | • | • | • | GSS | |||||||
| Health insurance cost | • | • | |||||||||||
| Source/type of health insurance | ο | • | • | • | • | GSS | |||||||
| Retirement benefits | X | ||||||||||||
| Paid sick leave | • | ||||||||||||
| Other paid time off | ο | ||||||||||||
| Unpaid leave available | *** | ||||||||||||
| Workers’ compensation | • | 2010 | |||||||||||
| Workplace Psychosocial Conditions | |||||||||||||
| Job security (i.e., pertaining to labor agreement: permanent, open-ended, or limited in terms of time; or concern about becoming unemployed) | 2010/15/21 | ο | |||||||||||
| Quantitative workload (vigilance, mental demands) | 2015 | ο | |||||||||||
| Job control (skill discretion and decision latitude) | 2015 | ο | |||||||||||
| Opportunity for advancement/skills development | ο | ||||||||||||
| Safety Climate | • | • | 2015 | ο | |||||||||
| Supervisory support | 2015 | ο | |||||||||||
| Supervisory responsibilities | 2015 | ο | |||||||||||
| Social hazards (discrimination; harassment; bullying) | 2010/15 | ο | |||||||||||
| Occupational Exposure Hazards | |||||||||||||
| Work-relatedness of exposure | ο | ο | |||||||||||
| Specific chemicals (e.g., lead, asbestos, specific pesticides) | • | • | • | • | |||||||||
| Contaminants: vapors, dust, gases, fumes (collected as a grouped exposure) | ο | 2010 | |||||||||||
| Route of exposure | • | ||||||||||||
| Secondhand Smoke | 2010/15 | ||||||||||||
| Vibration, radiation, temperature stress | X | ||||||||||||
| Outdoor work | ⊗ | ⊗ | 2010 | ||||||||||
| Exposure risk factors**** for adverse outcome (injury/fatality/poisoning) | • | • | |||||||||||
| Ergonomic stressors (e.g., repetitive motion, forceful exertion, lifting) | 2015 | ο | |||||||||||
| Work in close proximity to others | 2021 |
Acronyms: ABLES: Adult Blood Lead Epidemiology & Surveillance; BRFSS: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; CWHSP: Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program; CFID: Commercial Fishing Incident Database; FACE: Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation; GSS: General Social Survey; NATS: National Adult Tobacco Survey; NAWS: National Agricultural Workers Survey; NHANES: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; NHIS: National Health Interview Survey; NHSN: National Healthcare Safety Network; NOMS/NVSS: National Occupational Mortality Surveillance/National Vital Statistics System; NVDRS: National Violent Death Reporting System; OHS: Occupational Health Supplement of NHIS; PRAMS: Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System; SENSOR: Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks – Pesticides; QWL: Quality of Worklife Questionnaire.
Table reflects variables captured in 2021, except as noted.
NVDRS has a separate Public Safety Officer Suicide module that gives the opportunity to provide more occupation-specific information for these decedents.
Elicits whether unpaid leave was taken, not whether it was available.
Examples of exposure risk factors include working alone (CFID) and whether a leak/spill occurred (SENSOR-Pesticides)
indicates collection on a regular basis (i.e., annually) from all participants.
indicates periodic or optional collection (because questions are optionally added by states or only administered to a sample or specific subset of participants, etc.
indicates implied variables collected (e.g., employment status and outdoor work for CFID and NAWS, because the data systems focus on specific groups of workers).
Notes: For NHIS, occupational health supplements (OHS) were administered in 2010, 2015, and 2021. Variables collected in the NHIS core are labelled as described above. Variables collected in the OHS are labelled with the year(s) collected. The QWL has been administered as part of the GSS in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022. Additional questions have been added since 2010. For GSS/QWL, variables collected by the core GSS are labelled “GSS” and those collected by the QWL use the open circle because the QWL is administered periodically.
Please see Appendix B for explanation of the conceptual organization of work arrangements and selected other working conditions, particularly those elicited by NHIS-OHS.