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Add Unemployment Periods at the Beginning and End of Employment Histories

Source: R/add_unemployment_tail.R
add_unemployment_periods.Rd

Extends vecshift output by adding unemployment periods at the beginning and/or end of employment histories. This creates complete temporal coverage for analysis requiring uniform observation periods by:

  • Head: Adding unemployment from min_date to first employment start

  • Tail: Adding unemployment from last employment end to max_date

Usage

add_unemployment_periods(
  vecshift_data,
  min_date = NULL,
  max_date = NULL,
  min_duration = 1L,
  add_head = FALSE,
  add_tail = TRUE
)

Arguments

vecshift_data

A data.table output from vecshift() containing temporal employment segments with required columns: cf, inizio, fine, arco, prior, id, over_id, durata. Optional: stato column for employment status.

min_date

Date or numeric. The start date for unemployment heads (optional). Only used when add_head = TRUE. Individuals with first employment starting after this date will get unemployment heads added.

max_date

Date or numeric. The end date for unemployment tails (optional). Only used when add_tail = TRUE. Individuals with last employment ending before this date will get unemployment tails added.

min_duration

Integer. Minimum duration in days for unemployment periods to be added. Shorter periods are excluded (default: 1).

add_head

Logical. Whether to add unemployment periods at the beginning of employment histories (default: FALSE). Requires min_date to be specified.

add_tail

Logical. Whether to add unemployment periods at the end of employment histories (default: TRUE). Requires max_date to be specified.

Value

A data.table with the same structure as input, extended with unemployment tail segments where applicable. Maintains original ordering by cf and temporal sequence.

Details

The function can add unemployment periods at both ends of employment histories:

Head Unemployment (when add_head = TRUE):

  • Identifies individuals whose first employment starts after min_date

  • Creates unemployment from min_date to (first_start - 1)

  • Only added if duration >= min_duration

Tail Unemployment (when add_tail = TRUE):

  • Identifies individuals whose last employment ends before max_date

  • Creates unemployment from (last_end + 1) to max_date

  • Only added if duration >= min_duration

All unemployment periods follow vecshift formatting:

  • arco = 0: No active employment contracts

  • over_id = 0: Unemployment period

  • id = 0: No associated contract ID

  • prior = 0: Standard for unemployment periods

  • durata: Correctly calculated duration

  • stato = "disoccupato": Employment status (if present in input)

The function preserves the temporal invariant that elapsed time equals sum of durations by person, ensuring consistency with vecshift's core logic.

Note

This function is optimized for performance using data.table operations and follows vecshift coding conventions. It handles edge cases such as:

  • Individuals already starting at/before min_date (no head added)

  • Individuals already ending at/after max_date (no tail added)

  • Very short unemployment periods (filtered by min_duration)

  • Proper integration with over_id consolidation logic

  • Maintains temporal ordering by cf and inizio

See also

vecshift for the main temporal transformation function classify_employment_status for status classification

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
library(data.table)
# Create sample employment data
dt <- data.table(
  id = 1:2,
  cf = c("ABC123", "DEF456"),
  INIZIO = as.Date(c("2023-03-01", "2023-06-01")),
  FINE = as.Date(c("2023-05-31", "2023-08-31")),
  prior = c(1, 0)
)

# Transform to vecshift format
result <- vecshift(dt)

# Add unemployment tails only (backward compatible)
extended_result <- add_unemployment_periods(
  result,
  max_date = as.Date("2024-12-31")
)

# Add unemployment heads only
extended_result <- add_unemployment_periods(
  result,
  min_date = as.Date("2022-01-01"),
  add_head = TRUE,
  add_tail = FALSE
)

# Add both head and tail unemployment
extended_result <- add_unemployment_periods(
  result,
  min_date = as.Date("2022-01-01"),
  max_date = as.Date("2024-12-31"),
  add_head = TRUE,
  add_tail = TRUE
)

# Check the added unemployment periods
print(extended_result[arco == 0])
} # }