Reliability of retrospective unemployment history data -ESRC Research Paper on Micro-social Change Working Paper-

Abstract

This paper examines the reliability of data on individuals' past experiences of unemployment spells which has been gained by asking individuals to recall these spells and the dates of their occurrence. It compares two sources of retrospective data; the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) Wave 2 1992, and the 1994 Family and Working Lives Survey. Unemployment histories from retrospective data are found to be reasonably reliable across these surveys. Men's records were found to be more reliable than women's unemployment records. This may be partly due to unemployment being a more problematic concept for women.