The Euroccupations database and its underlying

principles EurOccupations: Developing a detailed 8-country occupations database for

comparative socio-economic research in the European Union Specific Targeted Research Project (STREP), EU FP6

Project period: May 2006-May 2009

EurOccupations expert conference, 20-05-08, Marseille, Germany

Kea Tijdens

Why EurOccupations Database?

• Measurement of occupations in cross-country surveys is problematic

• Research using cross-country datasets are lacking detailed information about occupations

• Do similar occupational titles indicate similar job content across countries?

Project outline (2006-2009)

1. Construction of EurOccupations Database

2. Expert research 150 benchmark occupations

3. Testing and research activities, including social

stratification and Polish occupational structure

4. Dissemination

COUNTRIES: UK, FR, GE, ES, PL, NL, BE, IT

Time frame (2006-2009)

• May 2006-May 2007• Development 1st draft database• Selection of 160 occupations for job content testing• Design of web-survey for testing job content and skill levels

• May 2007-May 2008• Expert recruitment for job content and skill level testing• Jobholder recruitment for skill level testing

• May 2008-May 2009• Development final database• Research

Design of EurOccupations Database• International comparable

• One list of occupations for all countries• Coding according to ISCO 2008• Source list in English with translations for 7 + 10 languages,

all checked by national experts

• Search trees for self-identification in surveys • Search trees offer survey respondents a choice of thousand+ occupations• Occupations falling apart in recognizable occupation titles, that are close

to job titles, without being too detailed• More detailed than the 447 occupations at the 4-digit level of ISCO

• 1500 occupational titles• Full measurement of the labour market

Design principles

• Control for occupation size– Large ISCO occupational units should be detailed

-> not Clerk, but many distinct titles for clerks

• Avoiding gender bias – Average size in female-dominated occupations is mostly

larger than in male-dominated occupations -> detail female-dominated occupations

• Control for occupation size– Large ISCO occupational units should be detailed

Testing the database• Job content for 160 occupations

– similar for 8 countries?

• Required skill levels 160 occupations– similar for 8 countries?

• Actual skill levels 1500 occupations– search tree was uploaded in the worldwide

WageIndicator web-survey– this survey asks about actual skill level

Research on the database

• The findings of the expert survey+discussions

for each of the 8 clusters of occupations

• The occupational structure in Poland

• The gender and skill biases in the database

• The database and social stratification

Dissemination• A newsletter + project website

• A toolkit/manual for new countries

• Manual how to use the expert survey

• Manual about the use of the 1500 database

• The database is free available from the project website

Thank you

• www.euroccupations.org