What is the SOC?
SOC stands for Standard Occupational Classification system, and it’s analogous to the SIC system explained above except, of course, that it’s for occupations rather than industries. On its Web site, the BLS says: “The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system will be used by all Federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data. All workers are classified into one of over 820 occupations according to their occupational definition. To facilitate classification, occupations are combined to form 23 major groups, 96 minor groups, and 449 broad occupations. Each broad occupation includes detailed occupation(s) requiring similar job duties, skills, education, or experience.” The SOC User Guide is available here: http://stats.bls.gov/soc/socguide.htm and the SOC major groups are here: http://stats.bls.gov/soc/soc_majo.
SOC stands for Standard Occupational Classification system, and it’s analogous to the SIC system explained above except, of course, that it’s for occupations rather than industries. On its Web site, the BLS says: “The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system will be used by all Federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data. All workers are classified into one of over 820 occupations according to their occupational definition. To facilitate classification, occupations are combined to form 23 major groups, 96 minor groups, and 449 broad occupations.
