Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The aim of this survey was to discover the rate of occupational, industrial and geographical change in the employed population in Great Britain in 1949, to compare it with the frequency and change in the past and to ascertain the factors associated with change. Data were collected on the rate of change between occupations and industries, the advantages and disadvantages of change to the individuals, and the long-term problem of the movement of manpower between declining industries and growing industries.
Main Topics:Attitudinal/Behavioural Questions: Length of working life, number of occupations/industries/regions/towns/districts worked in, injuries and illnesses, whether first job was wanted, training received, preferred occupation/industry, reasons for choice, last change of job, number of changes between June 1945 and May 1949, opinion of wages, hours and conditions of previous and present employment, reasons for leaving, method of entry in present job, satisfaction, intention to change job. A copy of the questionnaire appears in Glass (1954) pp.94-97. Background Variables: Age, sex, marital status, place of birth, year of last marriage, children, number of males/females in family, number of male/female earners, residence (place, type, tenure), town/district/region, urban/rural, education of self, spouse, first and last born children, schools attended, examinations, qualifications, occupations of self and spouse, grade, type of employer, employment status.
One-stage stratified or systematic random sample
The sample required for this inquiry was one of 10,000 civilian adults aged 18 years and over in Great Britain. A two-stage sampling design was used. The first-stage sampling units were local government administrative districts. These were first stratified by Civil Defence Region and two of these Regions were further divided, Wales into two parts (North and South) and Greater London into seven geographical zones. Within Region or Sub-region districts were then stratified by whether urban or rural. The districts in each of the resulting strata were then used in descending order of size (population) and all districts of 140,000 population or over were extracted and each allocated its due proportion of the total sample of 10,000 (districts of this size or over accounted for about 23% of the total sample, a proportion which thus constituted a single-stage stratified random sample of the populations of the larger districts). The remaining districts in each stratum were then grouped into sub-strata by population size and two were selected at random from each sub-stratum. In each of the resulting 225 districts the required sample of civilians aged 18 years and over was obtained by drawing cards at constant intervals from the adult portion of the local National Register.
Face-to-face interview
