Economic Roundtable





Job Information in an Emerging Economy: Designing the Future Standard Occupational Classification 1993, 121pp.

By: MARK DRAYSE, ODESSA DUBINSKY, DANIEL FLAMING AND ROBIN LAW, ECONOMIC ROUNDTABLE


SYNOPSIS



The charter for this study was to put forward a vision to support emergence of the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) from its current status as a little known, under-utilized system into its intended role as the central framework for integrating national occupational information. This analysis of the SOC was prepared for the Employment Training Administration and Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States Department of Labor.

Occupational information can assist individuals who have never had a job become employed, it can help those who have lost jobs become reemployed, and it can indicate how those who are employed can become more productive. These outcomes are vital to the public interest and have direct implications for the future structure of occupational classification systems.

Societal interests in workforce outcomes are less polarized than they were in the 1930's when work began on the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. It has become possible and desirable to gather information about workers and jobs that more specifically addresses outcomes for workers that are important to the public. These outcomes include:

There is general compatibility among objectives in the preceding list of societal interests that are affected by the design of occupational classification systems. With several significant exceptions, it is feasible to provide the types of classification information needed to support analysis and programs related to these public interests.

General Issues in Classification
The enterprise of classifying all activity in the wage economy into a system of occupations raises several fundamental questions. Some of the questions are common to all taxonomies, whether they be of stamps, insects or occupations. All classification systems need to specify the distinguishing features that will determine inclusion or exclusion into categories. All systems require decisions about how constituent parts are to be grouped into broader categories. All systems should take into account how they are to be used to sort and organize data collected in the future. In addition, the designers of a system that deals with patterns of behavior (such as occupations) rather than recognizable material objects (such as insects) need to define the basic unit of analysis.

Consequently, we can distinguish four conceptually different tasks in designing an occupational classification system. They are:
1. selecting variables by which to define, cluster and describe occupations;
2. defining occupations;
3. aggregating occupations into a system of nested hierarchies; and
4. designing the database (designating the information to be indexed to the occupational categories).

Principles and Goals
The future SOC should be shaped to provide information that will help achieve high priority social goals for the workforce. Our recommendations for the future SOC cover issues of system structure, information content, and application. Particular attention is given to streamlining the occupational classification system; emphasizing skills, authority and work fields in choosing variables and classifying occupations; and making occupational and labor market information more compatible and widely used.

Core Recommendations

Structure: Integrate the DOT and SOC into a single system in which the SOC provides occupational information, with additional and more detailed information provided at the DOT level.

Content: Classify occupations on the basis of skills, authority, and work fields.

Uses: Simplify the connection between occupational, labor market, social and demographic information by using the revised SOC unit group as the main occupational unit.

Priority Rankings for Public Interests
Most Important:

Very Important:

Important:

Integrating Data from Multiple Sources
A potential strength of the SOC is its use in connecting the wealth of occupational information collected by job analysis with the employment statistics and demographic information collected through surveys and the Census. Interconnection of these data sources will have a synergistic effect in increasing the power and use of this information. For example, this data integration would provide "real time" information about the following kinds of issues: