Mapping Workforce Skills: Designing the SOC to Help American Workers

The Employment Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor requested the Economic Roundtable to prepare an expert paper on the guiding concepts that should be used in redesigning the national occupational classification system for capturing information about workers and jobs. The future Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system will be the central source of information for an issue at the heart of the nation's domestic agenda full employment and optimal use of skills for American workers. Occupational classification data is not an end in itself. It is a tool for obtaining answers to questions and solutions to problems that are important for aiding and improving working conditions of our society.