On June 12, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing its review of the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) and asking for public comment.
All federal statistical agencies, including the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), use SOC codes when reporting on occupational data for statistical purposes. This ensures that data is comparable across agencies and, therefore, more usable. Most federal contractors use the Census EEO Tabulation when calculating availability for their Executive Order 11246 Affirmative Action Programs (AAPs). Additionally, OFCCP often uses BLS’s Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data when calculating back pay in systemic discrimination cases. Both data sources use SOC codes.
The current SOC code structure, which is dated 2018 and includes classification principles, coding guidelines, and code definitions, can be found on BLS’s website. The SOC system is organized around “Major Groups” (like “Management Occupations” and “Business and Financial Operations Occupations”). Major groups are broken into minor groups, which are divided into broad occupations. Broad occupations are then divided into one or more detailed occupations. All major groups, minor groups, broad occupations, and detailed occupations are assigned a code. An example is as follows:
13-0000 Business and Financial Operations Occupations (Major Group)
13-1000 Business Operations Specialists (Minor Group)
13-1070 Human Resources Workers (Broad Occupation)
13-1071 Human Resources Specialists (Detailed Occupation)
In addition, OMB has created a framework to further divide some occupations by STEM field, but neither the EEO Tabulation nor the OEWS use the STEM framework.
OMB is seeking comments on the following items:
- OMB’s intention to retain the 2018 SOC Classification Principles in the 2028 SOC
- OMB’s intention to retain the 2018 SOC Coding Guidelines in the 2028 SOC
- OMB’s intention to retain the 2018 SOC Major Group structure
- Whether definitions for major occupation groups should be provided
- Whether to make changes to detailed occupations, including the classification of public safety telecommunicators and combining production occupations
- Whether to create new detailed occupations or occupational groups, including care workers
- Whether to make changes to major, minor, or broad occupational groups
- Whether to make changes to the STEM framework
- Uses and applications of SOC codes
The public has until August 12, 2024, to provide any comments. Comments can be submitted here. After reviewing the comments, OMB will publish revisions in the Federal Register, and invite the public to submit additional comments. The final revised SOC codes are expected to be released in 2027 and go into effect in 2028. Federal contractors will not start being affected until sometime after 2028, when BLS and the Census Bureau start releasing data collected under the new standards.
