DSS sites need to understand the difference between occupation and employment.  Some people may identify themselves as having professional training for an occupation but are not presently employed in their profession because there are no opportunities in their area. The DSS mainly collects and updates annual information on present employment.

The question of employment is phrased in such a way that the DSS gets to know what job takes up most of the respondents time, be it as income generating or not. Most people may not have one job but two or more. It is up to the respondent to give a maximum of two jobs, with the first one taken as the main one. Focus group discussions may be helpful in coming up with categories (it is a categorical variable) of employment as provided in the Sample Employment Questionnaire.

Employment refers to what the individual household member has been doing, or engaged in at least in the past 7 days before the data collection. The question on occupation is usually addressed to those aged 15 years and above (defined as economically active population). The economically active population includes all persons: