1. The Euroccupations database and its underlying principles Kea Tijdens, AIAS EUROSTAT Workshop on data collection on occupations, , Luxembourg
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam Institute for
Advanced Labour Studies

2. Problems associated with measuring occupations
Open-ended survey questions
Respondents tend to report their job title, not their occupation -> coding
-> Aggregation variation (clerk versus PTS programmer grade 3)
Coding
Automatic coding tools, using search strings and coding indexes
-> available for all EU member states??
Post-coding -> costly
International comparability
Problematic, particularly for countries with their own classification
Most datasets 2 digit ISCO
Part of the solution
Web-surveys can use search trees

3. Survey modes Survey mode Open-ended questions
Closed questions, choice set
Paper
yes
yes, max 50
Telephone
yes, max 5
Face-to-face
Web-based search tree
yes, max 1,000s
Coding index
high-quality needed
no index needed
Aggregation
aggregation variation X% too aggregate
aggregation bias if choice-set is limited
Missing data
X% unidentifiable answers
none

4. Projects WageIndicator websites EurOccupations
WageIndicator websites provide free information about wages in a wide range of occupations, controlled for human capital variables
All web-sites post a volunteer, continuous web-survey
The web-survey is in the national language(s)
The topics relate to work and wages
The web-survey employs the EurOccupations search tree + a text box for additional information about the occupation
In 2007 > 10 million visitors and > 160,000 completed surveys
End 2004 in 8 EU member states, early 2009 in almost 50 countries
EurOccupations
The WageIndicator occupations database had > 6,000 occupational titles for some ten countries, many titles for one country only
FP6-project EurOccupations ( ) aims to develop one database of occupational titles for use in multi-country web-surveys
The database holds approx. 1,800 occupational titles
150 occupations tested if they are similar across 8 member states

5. Principles EurOcc database - 1
One list of occupations for all countries
(We assume that occupational structures converge due to globalisation of the economy, e.g. machinery for manufacturing production is a worldwide market, thus the occupations will be similar across countries)
Fit with ISCO and SOC classifications (USA)
Occupational titles
Suitable for self-identification -> close to job titles -> more detail than the 447 occupations at ISCO 4-digit
Offering a large choice of occupation titles …. but coding indexes are much too detailed
No synonyms -> confusing for respondents
1800 occupational titles
Aiming for full measurement of the labour market

6. Principles EurOcc database - 2
Labels
Source list with all occupational titles in English
Translations
Step 1: Translations by professional translators
Step 2: All translated occupational titles are checked by national labour market experts
Step 3: Labour market experts propose country-specific occupation titles
Feminine and masculine job titles
In a few countries, both forms are used
10 digit codes
4-digit ISCO 2008
+ 2 follow-up digits for occupation titles within an ISCO code
+ 3 country digits for country-specific occupation titles
+ 2 follow-up digits for country-specific occupational titles

7. The EurOcc search tree One search tree Three-tier search tree
Similar for all countries
Three-tier search tree
Tier 1: Capturing major thematic occupational groups
Tier 2: Capturing detailed thematic occupational groups
Tier 3: Listing occupational titles from database
If needed, a title is placed in more than one tier 2
Principles of the search tree
The shortest/easiest routes for large & unskilled occupations
Small occupations not fitting 1st tier are identifiable at 2nd tier
Optimization of average reading time and length of the list
Alphabetical sorting eases the respondent’s choice

8. Empirical testing Measuring similarity across countries
EurOccupations: Empirical testing for 150 occupations in 7 countries
Each occupation has approx 10 tasks
Surveying experts + workers about the frequency of tasks
-> frequency ratings per task per occupation per country
Measuring required skill levels
ISCO codes indicate a required skill level, but not tested empirically (unthinkable for a worldwide classification)
Surveying experts + workers about the required skill levels
WageIndicator web-survey: workers indicate actual skill level
If the results point to variation in required skill level across countries, the database will provide a table per country

9. Methodology Stepwise building the database
ISCO 2008 draft3 list of occupations
Specific occupations have been added
Include occupational titles from 4-digit USA-DOT classification
Include occupations form the detailed ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES for ISCO88(COM) that were assumed to be large occupations
Include the suggestions from translations + checks
Review text-boxes of WageIndicator survey, with a view on new occupations
Review occupational titles in Taxonomy_db project
Review O*net

10. Database decisions Professionals vs employees Unskilled work
No different occupational titles for self-employed versus employees in the same occupation
No different occupational titles for firm-owners versus firm-managerial supervisors in the same occupation
Handicraft workers are distinct from machine-operators
Unskilled work
Broad groups of occupational titles
Industry-specific titles
No data-collection about respondent’s industry assumed -> not process operator, but dairy-products process operator

11. Occupational hierarchies
Five layer occupation hierarchy
Manager
Department manager
First line supervisor
Occupation
Occupation helper
(Most occupations have 1-3 layers)
No senior and junior levels
No separate occupational titles
Assistants
Extremely vague concept
Only when obviously the assistant will never become the occupation the assistant is assisting (no part of a job ladder)

12. Breakdown large occupations
Cashier
Fall apart into check-out operator, ticket clerks and ‘other cashiers’
Teachers
Break down by field of teaching for secondary education
Nurses
Break down by field of nursing
Sales agents
Break down by field of goods sold
Work planner
Break down by field of industries

13. Thank you for your attention
Download
The database (excel file) is freely available from the EurOccupations website
Websites