Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)

The SOC system is the federal taxonomy for classifying workers into occupational categories. It organizes approximately 830 detailed occupations into 23 major groups based on job duties.

OEWS, OOH, and other federal labor statistics use SOC codes, which makes cross-source analysis possible, but only within the same SOC version. The system updates roughly every 8-10 years (2000, 2010, 2018), and these revisions break time-series comparability.

The 6-digit SOC code structure: XX-XXXX. The first two digits indicate major group (e.g., 15 = Computer and Mathematical), the next digit indicates minor group, and the remaining digits specify detailed occupation.

Related:, 00-source—bls-oews