SOC 2018 — Standard Occupational Classification (U.S.)

Background

What a SOC code is, and how O*NET extends it

The SOC classifies occupations at four levels: major group, minor group, broad occupation and detailed occupation.^[4] The 2018 SOC divides its 23 major groups into 98 minor groups, 459 broad occupations and 867 detailed occupations.^[4] Each item in the SOC has a six-digit code, and the hyphen between the second and third digits is there only for clarity.^[4]

Major group codes end in 0000, as in 29-0000 Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations.^[4] Minor group codes generally end in 000, but the minor groups 15-1200 Computer Occupations, 31-1100 and 51-5100 Printing Workers end in 00.^[4] Broad occupation codes end in 0, as in 29-1020 Dentists, and detailed occupation codes end in a digit other than 0, as in 29-1022 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.^[4]

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) of the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is based on the SOC, and in selected instances adds more detailed occupations within a SOC category.^[5] The 2019 version of the O*NET-SOC taxonomy is aligned with the 2018 SOC.^[6] In the O*NET-SOC taxonomy, an occupation adopted directly from the SOC keeps its six-digit SOC code with a .00 extension.^[7] An O*NET-SOC occupation more detailed than its SOC detailed occupation takes that SOC code with a two-digit extension, starting with .01, then .02, .03 and so on.^[7] Under the SOC-level occupation 17-2112.00 Industrial Engineers, O*NET lists 17-2112.01 Human Factors Engineers and Ergonomists as a detailed O*NET-SOC occupation.^[7]

Who uses it

All federal agencies that publish occupational data for statistical purposes are required to use the SOC, to increase data comparability across federal programs.^[8] The U.S. Census Bureau estimates occupational employment from its household-based Current Population Survey and American Community Survey.^[5] The Current Population Survey uses the Census occupational classification, which is derived from the SOC.^[5]

The SOC is organised by work performed rather than by job title, so it has far fewer occupation codes than the economy has jobs.^[5] Household survey respondents tend to give general or informal occupational titles, such as "doctor" rather than "pediatrician".^[5] The Direct Match Title File (DMTF) lists job titles for detailed SOC occupations, each title a direct match to a single SOC occupation.^[9] A title such as "painter" is not a direct match, because it could be classified in more than one occupation, including 27-1013 Fine Artists, Including Painters, Sculptors, and Illustrators and 47-2141 Painters, Construction and Maintenance.^[9] Meridian publishes BLS's direct match titles as a companion table, each title pointing at a detailed occupation, and BLS's pairings of 2010 detailed occupations with 2018 ones as another.^[3] Code free-text job titles against the direct match titles first, and read the definitions of the candidate occupations where a title is not listed. (Meridian's view)

Meridian keeps BLS's hyphen in every code (11-1011).^[3] Every row also carries major_code, minor_code and broad_code, the codes of the groups above it, so an occupation rolls up to its major group in one GROUP BY.^[3] The O*NET Program moved its taxonomy from the O*NET-SOC 2010 to the O*NET-SOC 2019, based on the 2018 SOC, in a transition completed in November 2020.^[6] Check which edition of the SOC a source codes to before joining it here, and go through the 2010 to 2018 pairings for data coded to the 2010 SOC. (Meridian's view) The SOC is developed to serve statistical purposes, and other purposes it may be used for play no role in its development or revision.^[8]

What we found building it

SOC codes are not plain prefixes: the broad occupation 15-1210 sits under the minor group 15-1200, and the detailed occupation 29-1221 under the broad occupation 29-1210.^[3] Meridian sets each row's parent_code to the highest code at the level above, at or below the row's own, that shares its leading digits, and fails the run if that is not the group BLS prints last above the row.^[3]

Meridian's build reads each BLS workbook from an explicit range and fails if a header row is not where it was measured, so a workbook whose layout has moved stops the run.^[3]

Where it comes from

The SOC is one of several standard classification systems established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for use in the federal statistical system.^[8] OMB makes the final decisions about the SOC, publishes the SOC Manual and charters the SOC Policy Committee.^[8] The SOC was first issued in 1977, with a subsequent revision in 1980.^[8] The 1980 SOC was the basis for the occupational classification of the Census of Population and Housing in 1980 and 1990, but neither the 1977 nor the 1980 SOC was widely used in other federal data sources.^[8] With the implementation of the 2000 SOC, all major occupational data sources of the federal statistical system provided comparable data for the first time.^[8] Between the 1977 SOC and the 2010 SOC, the number of major occupation groups grew from 21 to 23 and the number of detailed occupations from 662 to 840.^[8]

The year in a SOC revision's name is the year it is to be implemented in data collection, not the year of its publication.^[8] The 2018 SOC was timed to follow the 2017 revision of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), so that data series using both could adopt the revised classifications together.^[8] The interagency SOC Policy Committee (SOCPC) began planning the 2018 revision in early 2012 and submitted its recommendations to OMB for consideration.^[9] OMB sought public comment in Federal Register notices published on May 22, 2014 and July 22, 2016.^[9] On November 28, 2017, OMB published a Federal Register notice with the final 2018 SOC codes, titles and definitions, for implementation in reference year 2018.^[9] OMB intends to consider revisions of the SOC every 10 years from 2018.^[8]

Sources

1. [1]soc_2018.datapackage.jsonMeridian's method docs
2. [2]SOC home : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsdocumentation
3. [3]README.mdMeridian's method docs
4. [4]Standard Occupational Classification and Coding Structure, 2018 SOCdocumentation
5. [5]FAQs and Acknowledgements, 2018 SOCdocumentation
6. [6]O*NET-SOC Taxonomy at O*NET Resource Centerdocumentation
7. [7]Updating the O*NET-SOC Taxonomy: Incorporating the 2018 SOC Structure - Summary and Implementationdocumentation
8. [8]Revising the Standard Occupational Classificationdocumentation
9. [9]Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisticsdocumentation