The Standard Occupational Coding System - Capturing Detailed Information about Jobs
About
The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system is a federal statistical standard used by federal agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data.
Detailed occupations in the SOC with similar job duties, and in some cases skills, education, and/or training, are grouped together.
About Occupational Coding Standardization
Career data is essential to understanding the rapidly changing nature of work, and it has proven vital in helping people find the training and jobs they need, and employers find the skilled workers necessary to be competitive in the marketplace.
The SOC 2018 (Standard Occupational Classification) is a federal statistical standard to classify occupational categories. Every occupation has a different mix of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs). These distinguishing characteristics in the anatomy of a single occupation are captured by the SOC coding system (see Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Content Model).
In the SOC coding system, all workers are classified into one of 867 detailed occupations, according to their occupational definition. To facilitate categorization, detailed occupations are combined to form 459 broad occupations, 98 minor groups, and 23 major groups. SOC has a complete hierarchical structure drilling down from broad occupational categories to detailed occupational specifications.
The SOC Taxonomy Structure in O*NET
The O*NET is a SOC-based classification system and career information database that serves as the nation's primary source of recorded occupational information. The SOC code is part of the full O*NET coding of occupational characteristics, work conditions, detailed work activities (DWAs) and knowledge, skill and abilities (KSA) levels. Thus, the SOC Taxonomy, which is a subset of the O*NET coding system without the detailed O*NET 2-digit extension, defines the entire spectrum of the world of work.
O*NET Web Services includes the SOC 2019 taxonomy, including 1,016 occupational titles, 923 of which represent detailed occupations.
The OES-SOC Connection in O*NET
SOC relies on the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data in two ways:
- The OEWS employment and wage data is displayed in the O*NET websites and the projections are used to indicate Bright Outlook occupations in demand; and
- OEWS data on distribution of occupational employment by industry is also used to construct the sampling frame for O*NET data collection on occupations.
SOC Crosswalks to Other Coding Systems
Customers can go to the Crosswalk Search page and use a title or code to find corresponding occupations within O*NET Online. To download the new crosswalk or to learn more, visit the O*NET Taxonomy section of the O*NET Resource Center, or access the crosswalk via O*NET Web Services.
See O*NET Online crosswalks for more information and search features.
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- Posted by: Damon Jones
- Posted in: LMI Central