Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009

Dear (especially American) People,

I am going to carry out a questionnaire on American people. One of the most
important, and the one I am having difficulty to formulate, question is
stated below. My aim is to figure out the 'to be revealed' or 'revealed'
employment path of the respondent. The employment path consists of
employment statuses. By employment status I mean one of the following three
statuses: full time work, part time work, and full time retirement. Hence,
you might have followed the following employment path: You worked full time
most of the time of your life and then took a part time job for several
years before you retired fully. The questions below try to capture these
kind of patterns. Of course they are simplified as otherwise I cannot tackle
with too complicated patterns. Note that "employment history" applies only
to retired people as they have realized their working life. However, I also
would like to know the anticipated employment pattern of people who are
currently working full or part time. For this reason I first ask the
respondents if they are currently working full time, working part time,
retired, or partly retired. After I determine their current labor market
status, I ask the current question but different versions of wording apply
with respect to the indicated current labor market status. The questions
will be asked online to respondents who are paid for answering the
questions. Therefore there is an initiative for them to answer.

In the questions below you will see capital letters such as  "F-P-P-R".
These will not appear in the question but it is just to demonstrate easily
the employment pattern I am trying to capture. For example F-P-P-R means you
work full time (F) and then part time for many years (P-P) and then you
retire (R). F-P-R means you work full time (F) and then part time for not
necessarily many years (P, that is one P) and then you retire (R). The set
of possible employment paths are the following:

F-F-F-R
F-F-P-R
F-P-P-R
F-P-F-R I am not considering this sequence as it is too complicated
P-P-P-R
P-P-F-R
P-F-F-R
P-F-P-R I am not considering this sequence as it is too complicated

After the question I plan to ask the respondents 'the degree the employment
pattern they choose is representative'. This will tell me how successful I
am in predicting their employment sequence.

What I would like you to do:
1. Please tell me if you can think of a better formulation of this question
that intends to capture labor market pattern of a person.
2. If you are rather fine with the formulation, please tell me what I might
be missing in this question.
3. If doing 1 and 2 is too much, then just try to answer the question and
tell me the ambiguity you have encountered in evaluating the question.
4. Please watch my English. It should be understandable to the average
American.

QUESTION:

Many employees retire fully after working full time. Other employees go into
partial retirement where they work part time for several years before full
retirement.

1. If labor market status is: full time employee

Which of the following retirement paths are you more likely to have
realized? When answering this question please base your choice as much as
possible on your opportunities rather than on your preferences.

       1. After many years of full time work I will enter into full
retirement
       F-F-F-R

       2. After many/some years of full time work I will work part time for
many/some years and then I will enter into full retirement
       F-F-P-R or F-P-P-R

       3. After many/some years of part time work I am currently working
full time for many/some years before I enter into full retirement
       P-P-F-R or P-F-F-R

2. If labor market status is: part time employee.

Which of the following retirement paths are you more likely to have
realized? When answering this question please base your choice as much as
possible on your opportunities rather than on your preferences.

       1. After many years of part time work I will enter into full
retirement
       P-P-P-R

       2. After many/some years of part time work I will work full time for
many/some years and then I will enter into full retirement
       P-P-F-R or P-F-F-R

       3. After many/some years of full time work I am currently working
part time for many/some years before I enter into full retirement
       F-F-P-R or F-P-P-R

3. If labor market status is 5: full time retiree.

Which of the following retirement paths most closely represents the
retirement path you have realized?

       1. After many years of full time work I entered into full retirement
       F-F-F-R

       2. After many/some years of full time work I worked part time for
many/some years and then I entered into full retirement
       F-F-P-R or F-P-P-R

       3. After many years of part time work I entered into full retirement
       P-P-P-R

       4. After many/some years of part time work I worked full time for
many/some years and then I entered into full retirement
       P-P-F-R or P-F-F-R

4. If labor market status is: part time retiree.

Which of the following retirement paths are you more likely to have
realized? When answering this question please base your choice as much as
possible on your opportunities rather than on your preferences.

       1. After many years of full time work I entered into part time
retirement
       F-F-F-P

       2. After many years of part time work I entered into part time
retirement
       P-P-P-P

       3. After many/some years of full time work I worked part time for
many/some years and then I entered into part time retirement
       F-F-P-P or F-P-P-P

       4. After many/some years of part time work I worked full time for
many/some years and then I entered into part time retirement
       P-P-F-P or P-F-F-P