Data Release 4 for the 2022 GSS Cross-section data, featuring a new multi-mode design, are now available. The additional data features expand survey paradata on interviewer characteristics, incentives, survey length, respondent selection, and the data collection design. We encourage users to review the documentation and consider the potential impact of the experiments and data collection approach on the survey estimates.
If you are interested in submitting new content for the 2026 GSS, the call for the 2026 GSS Module Competition is now available. The deadline is February 10th, 2025.
The Quality of Worklife (QWL) survey module is a joint project between the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Science Foundation, administered every two rounds of the General Social Survey. The QWL captures how work life and the work experience have changed since earlier surveys as far back as 1977, and helps maintain a baseline for future research.
The Quality of Worklife survey module is asked of all GSS respondents who are working in any given year. It includes questions on hours of work, workload, worker autonomy, layoffs and job security, job satisfaction/stress, and worker well-being, as well as others. When the module was first introduced in 2002, half of the questions were taken from 1977 Quality of Employment Survey, allowing comparisons of worker responses over a 25-year period. Since 2002, the module has grown to include 90 different variables, expanding to include more specific health and safety measures, questions about the use of technology at work, and additional items on supervisory roles.
How fair is what you earn on your job in comparison to others doing the same type of work you do?
In the past 12 months, have you had back pain every day for a week or more?
In your job, how often do you take part with others in making decisions that affect you?
The Quality of Worklife survey module was fielded in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. A dataset is available that collects the QWL variables, as well as other variables related to work or occupation and selected demographic variables. Additionally, several variables are only available in the QWL dataset. These variables are NIOSH specified recodes of certain work and demographic variables, aimed at eliminating uncertain categories or reversing scales. The QWL dataset has two significant features when compared to the current GSS cumulative file. First, the QWL dataset covers the years 1972-2014, and will only be updated when new QWL modules are fielded (next expected in 2018). Second, it only features respondents who are working fulltime, part time, or temporarily not at work, lowering the total number of respondents to 36,805.
The QWL dataset can be downloaded here (SPSS) or here (Stata). QWL variables can also be accessed via the GSS cumulative file, the GSS Data Explorer, and a new section of Key Trends has been generated for QWL variables. The QWL Codebook contains full quesiton text, as well as year-by-year distributions for each question in the dataset.
