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Classification Information

  • Standard Occupational Classification (1998/2000 SOC): The SOC is the federal government's official classification structure for occupations. All federal programs that classify workers use or are based on the SOC. The final version of the 1998 SOC was released on September 30, 1999. A revision was released on September 15, 2000. The Standard Occupational Classification Policy Committee (SOCPC) is working on a revision of the SOC for 2010. Read their Federal Register notice for more information.
  • Occupational Information Network (O*NET): This classification is the Department of Labor's replacement for the venerable Dictionary of Occupational Titles (see below). The latest versions are based on the Standard Occupational Classification. The O*NET consortium has also developed an on-line viewer for accessing information about O*NET occupations. The NCSC has also developed a variety of databases containing O*NET data. See our O*NET database directory for more information.
  • Classification of Instructional Programs(CIP-2000): The U.S. Department of Education recently revised its major classification of training programs. Visit this site for information about the revision.
  • Occupational Employment Statistics (OES): This classification is used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for a survey of employers for gathering staffing pattern and wage information. The survey uses occupations from the SOC.
  • Census Occupations: Occupations used in the 2000 decennial census are based on the SOC. The classification was modified for use in the 2003 Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey and other surveys done by the census bureau. This revision, the 2002 census occupations, add another character to the 2000 census occupation codes by adding a zero after the 2000 code.

Legacy Classifications

  • Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT): This Department of Labor classification, in use since the 1930s, classifies and describes almost 13,000 occupations. Its information about occupations has been included in many career guidance, vocational rehabilitation and other systems. And the classification itself has been the basis for a number of job matching and other systems.
  • 1980 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC): This classification was designed to be used as the basis for collection of occupational information by the federal government.
  • 1990 Census occupational classification: The 1990 census occupations are based on the 1980 SOC.

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