Understanding Society User Support

Hi Gemma,
I am not sure which employment status variables you are referring to that are only available in the data in some waves. The most commonly used variables are available in all waves, and this includes the employment status (i.e., _jbstat on data file _indresp, and variable _employ on data file _indall). You may find it useful to explore the questionnaire, in particular for wave 1 as this includes the bulk of the questions which are asked every year. You can also use the questionnaires to identify the variable names and the online dataset documentation provides you with information on wave occurance. See https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/wave/2/datafile/b_indresp/variable/b_employ
and https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/documentation/mainstage/dataset-documentation/wave/2/datafile/b_indresp/variable/b_jbstat
for an example.

On behalf of the Understanding Society team,
Gundi