An Analysis of Worker Drug Use and Workplace Policies and Programs

Employment/Occupation

The question is that is used to develop a measure of current employment status is

"Which of the statements describes your present work situation:

Working full-time, 35 or more hours per week;

Working part-time, less than 35 hours per week;

Have a job, but not at work because of extended illness, maternity leave, furlough or strike;

Unemployed or laid off but looking for work;

Full-time homemaker;

In school only;

Retired;

Disabled, not able to work;

Or something else?"

Most of the analyses presented in this report focus on full-time workers, and limits their age range to 18-49.

Type of occupation is based on the following two questions:

"What is/was your occupation or job title?"

"What kind of work (are/were) you (last) doing; that is, what (are/were) your most important activities or duties in your job?"

Consistent with other large scale surveys, the NHSDA uses the U.S. Department of Labor's Standard Occupation Codes (SOC) to classify occupations into detailed categories (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1987; e.g., Hoffmann et al., 1996; Kopstein & Gfroerer, 1991; Mensch & Kandel, 1988). This report uses 14 major categories based on the more numerous three digit categories specified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (1987). A 15th category—Military—is excluded since the NHSDA does not include active military personnel as part of its target population. Workers in the occupation group Farmers, Fishing, and Forestry are also excluded from the analysis since there were too few in the NHSDA sample to yield precise estimates.

This page was last updated on June 03, 2008.

SAMHSA, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, is the Federal Government's lead agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the United States.