What type of work do people do?

Occupations for men and women according to the US Census

pic of jobs

What is an occupation?

The Census defines an occupation as something that "describes the kind of work the person does on the job"

Why is this information important?

Among the reasons the Census collects occupation data includes to

How is this information collected?

Written responses to questions 42e and 42f are auto and clerically coded using the Census Occupation Code List. The Census also relies on the Alphabetical Indexes of Industries and Occupations, which contains over 21,000 industries and 31,000 occupation titles.

What are examples of occupation categories?

Occupation Examples
Management, business & finance Chief Executive, Budget Analyst
Professional and related Software engineers, Lawyers
Healthcare support Physicians, Registered Nurses
Protective service Firefighters, Police officers
Building, grounds cleaning & maintenance Janitors, Pest control
Personal care & service Barbers, childcare workers
Sales and related Retail workers, Insurance sales agents
Office & administrative support Bill and account collectors, Customer service representatives
Farming, fishing & forestry Agricultural inspectors, Forest and conservation workers
Construction, extraction, maintenance Carpenters, Electricians
Production Bakers, Welders
Transportation & material moving Pilots, Crane and tower operators

Limitations

As one might imagine, there are several problems with classifying all occupational categories based on fill-in responses. But the three main ones include:

  • Only accounts for a person's primary job and does not include multiple jobs
  • Limited comparability of data overtime because of deprecated coding systems and the reclassification of occupation titles
  • For vague or blank responses, "a code is assigned from a donor respondent who is a “similar” person based on questions such as age, sex, educational attainment, income, employment status, and weeks worked "

    • Sources