Occupation Standard

Data on occupations are collected in a wide variety of social and labour statistical collections and are a central element in labour market analysis, educational planning, immigration policy development and a range of other government activities.

This is the Occupation standard which underpins the variables:

• Occupation of main job
• Occupation of last job
   

This standard can be applied to other occupation-related variables (such as "occupation of vacant job" and "occupation of second job") by making appropriate word substitutions to the questions included in the question modules.

An occupation is a set of jobs that require the performance of similar or identical sets of tasks. A 'job' is a set of tasks designed to be performed by one person for an employer (including self-employment) in return for payment, profit, commission or payment in kind. Individual persons are classified by occupation through their relationship to a past or present job.

As it is uncommon for two actual jobs to have identical sets of tasks, 'Occupation' is operationally defined as a set of jobs whose main tasks are characterised by a high degree of similarity. That is, sets of jobs with similar sets of tasks are grouped together to form an occupation.

The degree of similarity between two occupations is measured in terms of the skill level and skill specialisation associated with the sets of tasks involved in each occupation.

The skill level of an occupation is a function of the range and complexity of the set of tasks performed. The greater the range and complexity of the tasks performed, the greater the skill level of the occupation.

Skill level is measured operationally by the level or amount of formal education and training, the amount of previous experience in a related occupation, and the amount of on-the-job training required to competently perform the set of tasks involved.

The skill specialisation of an occupation is a function of:

• the field of knowledge required (which refers to the subject matter knowledge that is essential for satisfactory performance of the tasks of an occupation);
• tools and equipment used (which includes all forms of plant, machinery, computer-based equipment and hand tools used in the performance of tasks, as well as intellectual tools such as personal interaction, and art and design techniques);
• materials worked on (which refers to materials of both tangible and abstract nature which are extracted, processed, transformed, refined or fabricated as an essential part of the tasks performed); and
• goods or services produced or provided (which refers to the end product of the performance of the tasks of an occupation and includes physical goods, personal or other services, and abstract goods such as software applications or statistical information).
   

Occupation is restricted to jobs undertaken for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind, including jobs occupied by people working for themselves. In household surveys, this means all persons who are identified by the Labour Force Status variable as 'Employed'. In employer surveys, Occupation is used to collect information about employee jobs.

The activities of persons classified as 'Not in the Labour Force' (as defined in the standard for Labour Force Status) are outside the scope of occupation variables e.g. persons who were keeping house (unpaid), retired, voluntarily inactive, permanently unable to work, persons in institutions (hospitals, gaols, sanatoriums, etc.), and persons whose only activity during the reference period was jury service or unpaid voluntary work for a charitable organisation.

'Occupation' is an attribute of the statistical unit 'job'. Individual persons are classified by occupation through their relationship to a past or present job. In household surveys it is collected in relation to the person by reference to the job(s) held by that person.

There are three standard question modules for collecting Occupation:

• preferred standard question module for household surveys
• alternative standard question module for household surveys
• question module for employer surveys
   

The choice of module may be informed by the following factors:

• information needs
• mode of data collection, and
• respondent burden.
   

These question modules are applicable to any collection mode: online (e-form), telephone interview, and/or face-to-face interview. Depending on the context of the information collection, the questions may be sought of the person concerned directly or they may be asked about another person indirectly. The question modules below are adaptable for either situation and include allowable word substitutions shown in square brackets (e.g. [your], [the person's]).

The question modules below are for collecting the variable Occupation of Main Job but can be easily modified to collect other occupation-related variables by making appropriate word substitutions. For example, to collect the variable Occupation of Last Job, the words "last job" are substituted for the words "main job".

The preferred standard question module for household surveys is a set of five open-ended questions and is suitable for self-completion and interviewer-administered collections. The first two questions are occupation specific, question three asks about the employer, and questions four and five ask about the employer's industry. Employer and industry information is used, where necessary, to assist with coding occupation.

The recommended question module for the variable Occupation of Main Job follows. The questions include instructions and examples which should be included to help respondents to answer the questions in sufficient detail.

Give full title.

For example: Registered Aged Care Nurse, House Cleaner, Retail Sales Assistant, Ore Crushing Machine Operator.

For public servants, write occupation title and level. For example: Customer Service Officer APS5.

For armed services personnel, write rank and occupation.

Give full details.

For example: nursing the aged, cleaning houses, selling clothing in a department store, operating an ore crusher in a processing facility.

For managers, write the function managed. For example: managing construction projects, managing a hotel, managing human resources.

For self-employed persons, write the name of the person's business.

For teachers, write the full name of the school including the related education level e.g. primary school, high school.

Examples for industry or business of the employer: Secondary School Education, Gold Mining, IT Consulting Service, Domestic Cleaning Service, Apartment Construction.

Describe as fully as possible, using two words or more.

For example: providing education to secondary school students, mining gold ore, providing information technology advice, house cleaning, construction of residential buildings.

Open-ended questions give the most detailed information and enable coding to the most detailed level of the classification.

Industry information is almost always collected when data on occupation are required. The Industry and Employer questions are, therefore, included in the question module as they provide additional information which can assist coding without increasing respondent burden.

The use of a question module based on only Questions 1 and 2 above is often considered due to insufficient resources to ask the complete set of five questions. However, this option is not recommended as it may adversely affect the accuracy of coding.

It is often argued that the inclusion of the second (task) question is redundant. However, the use of an occupation title question only often elicits responses which do not provide a clear indication of the occupation. Omitting the task question, therefore, would mean that accurate coding at unit group or occupation level may frequently not be possible.

An acceptable alternative standard question module for household surveys, which is also suitable for self-completion and interviewer-administered collections, are the questions used in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Monthly Population Survey (MPS) and ABS Special Social Surveys. These surveys use two questions on occupation title and tasks (slightly modified from Questions 1 and 2 above) as well as two industry-related questions:

The following question module is recommended for use in employer collections:

Give the full title of each employee's occupation, stating trade, class or grade where applicable (e.g. primary school teacher, machine operator, 2nd year apprentice chef).

Describe, as fully as possible, the main tasks or duties usually performed by this employee (e.g. prepares lessons and teaches, operates extruding machine, food preparation).

It is usually unnecessary to collect industry information in employer collections as this information is typically available from the business survey frame.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) occupation variables are coded using the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) Version 1.3 (ABS catalogue number 1220.0).

It should be noted that the titles used in ANZSCO Version 1.3 are intended to unambiguously convey the clearest possible idea of the nature of the particular occupation. However, in some instances, the same job titles are used by different industries to describe different occupations (e.g. business analyst). Nor are the titles used in ANZSCO Version 1.3 an exhaustive list of all titles used by people to describe an occupation (e.g. brickie, sparky, RN). Therefore, the ANZSCO Index of Principal Titles, Alternative Titles and Specialisations should not be used to code occupation information.

Responses to questions on occupation are coded using computer assisted coding (CAC) methodology which incorporates a purpose-built coding index containing numerous common descriptions of occupations (including vernacular terms). For more information on coding using CAC see Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) Coder, 2013 (cat. no. 1220.0.30.001).

The ANZSCO Coder is available from the ABS (email standards@abs.gov.au).

The standard input categories for collecting Occupation are the 6-digit categories in ANZSCO Version 1.3.

Coding indexes have been developed to facilitate the coding of responses to the questions specified in 'Collecting the data' to the 6-digit level of ANZSCO Version 1.3 and are updated by the ABS on a regular basis. A master coding index is maintained by the Statistical Standards and Infrastructure section of the ABS to ensure consistency across all applications of the classification.

The hierarchical structure of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) Version 1.3 allows users the flexibility to produce statistics at the level of the classification which best suits their information needs.

Requirements for data quality or respondent confidentiality may preclude output of data at the more detailed level of the classification. Under these circumstances, data can be aggregated and disseminated at the higher levels of ANZSCO Version 1.3. However, where practical, occupation data should be output at the most detailed level possible to meet the analytical needs of users of the data.

The output classification used for Occupation is ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, 2013, Version 1.3 (cat. no. 1220.0).

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) and SNZ (Statistics New Zealand) 2009, ANZSCO – Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, First Edition, Revision 1, 2009, cat. no. 1220.0, ABS, Canberra.

ABS and SNZ 2013, ANZSCO – Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, 2013, Version 1.3, cat. no. 1220.0, ABS, Canberra.

ABS 2014, Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) Coder, 2013, cat. no. 1220.0.30.001, ABS, Canberra.

ABS 2018, Standards for Labour Force Statistics, 2018, cat. no. 1288.0, ABS, Canberra.

ABS 2016, Labour Force Survey Standard Products and Data Item Guide, Jun 2016, cat. no. 6103.0, ABS, Canberra.

AQF (Australian Qualifications Framework) Advisory Board 2002, Australian Qualifications Framework Implementation Handbook, Third Edition, 2002, Australian Qualifications Council, Carlton South, Victoria.

This release previously used catalogue number 1220.0.55.001.