Standard Occupational Classification System

The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System^[1] is a United States government system of classifying occupations. It was developed in response to a growing need for a universal occupational classification system. Such a classification system would allow government agencies and private industry to produce comparable data. Users of occupational data include government program managers, industrial and labor relations practitioners, students considering career training, job seekers, vocational training schools, and employers wishing to set salary scales or locate a new plant. It will be used by all federal agencies collecting occupational data, providing a means to compare occupational data across agencies. It is designed to cover all occupations in which work is performed for pay or profit, reflecting the current occupational structure in the United States. The USA's SOC was recently revised, and is now known as the 2010 SOC, which includes 840 occupational types. The national variants of the SOC are used by the governments of the UK, Canada, and many others.

Categories

• Management occupations
• Business and financial operations occupations
• Computer and mathematical occupations
• Architecture and engineering occupations
• Life, physical, and social science occupations
• Professional gambling occupations
• Community and social services occupations
• Legal occupations
• Education, training, and library occupations
• Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations
• Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations
• Healthcare support occupations
• Protective service occupations
• Food preparation and serving related occupations
• Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations
• Personal care and service occupations
• Sales and related occupations
• Office and administrative support occupations
• Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations
• Construction and extraction occupations
• Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations
• Production occupations
• Transportation and material moving occupations
• Military specific occupations

See also

• Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) First Published 1939. Last complete update 1977. Last revised edition published (DOT, 4th ed.) in 1991. Now out of print, the DOT is used only by Administrative Law Judges (as required by statute) to encode physical requirements of occupations to make Occupational Law determinations.
• International Standard Classification of Occupations
• National Occupational Classification (NOC) (in Canada)
• Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Comprehensive information about over 900 occupational categories, including 840 SOC categories and many specialized O*NET-SOC categories.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) Created and maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)

References

• U.S. Department of Labor (2000). Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Manual (2000 ed.). Washington, D.C.

External links

• The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System