PGLFS provides a status variable to distinguish between different types of unemployment. It differentiates between “working” [11-12] and “non-working” [1–10 and 13] categories, which are constant across all waves. The variable is generated mainly from plb0022_v# variables, (employment status) and additional variables such as plb0021 (registered unemployed) plg0012_v# (receiving education), and plb0019_v# (parental leave) from pl.dta.

In cases of conflicting status codes, the following hierarchy was used to determine the dominant value (increasing priority from top to bottom):

Since 2016, the questionnaire for refugees contains a new employment status category “vocational internship (betriebliches Praktikum)”, which is integrated in the category [3] “non-working, and currently in training/education”.
Since 2017 there is no differentiation between regular and occasional secondary job. Category [13] is therefore created to capture the respondents who are primarily not part of the labor force but either regularly or occasionally exercise one or more secondary activities which are either remunerated or not voluntary.

PGLFS supplements the variable PGEMPLST, which differentiates among individuals who are employed.