Proportion (%) of population by occupational group. Classification is based on the current or last (main) occupation.
Calculation
According to European Socio-economic Classification (ESeC) project recommendations; 9 occupational classes (and one class for never worked/long-term unemployed), based on ISCO classification and additional information on: 1) status (self-employed/employees), 2) organization size for employers (less than 10/10 employees or more), 3) hierarchical position for employee (supervisor or ordinary employee). The 9 classes are to be aggregated into 5 groups: ESeC classes 1+2, 3+6, 4+5, 7, and 8+9.
Relevant dimensions and subgroups
Calendar year
Country
Region (according to ISARE recommendations).
Sex
Age group (25-64).
Preferred data type and data source
Preferred data type
HIS
Preferred data source
Labour Force Survey (LFS), alternatively: European Social Survey (ESS)
Data availability
(Also see first remark)
Microdata of European Statistics of Income and Living Condition survey (EU-SILC) and LFS allow for the computation of occupational class according to ESeC since 2004 and 2006 respectively. Eurostat does not publish data on occupation from these surveys.
LFS contains data by sex, age and NUTS-II level. This corresponds to ISARE recommendations for a number of countries only.
ESS: Data available for years 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008. Next round planned for 2010. 30 countries participated in 2008. ESS is project based (funded by FP6, FP7 (DG Research)).
Individual level data freely available in ESS database; ISCO classification and additional information necessary to compute ESeC classes, sex, age. No data on region according to ISARE recommendations available.
ISARE project on regional data does not collect data on occupation.
Data periodicity
LFS: quarterly survey since early 2000’s (before that time: annual). ESS: biannual survey.
Rationale
Next to stratification schemes based on educational level and income, occupation-based social class schemes provide an important tool for monitoring socio-economic inequalities in health.
Remarks
Currently no data on population by occupation by ESeC class are centrally computed/published, though the necessary microdata are available (see data availability). ECHIM will discuss with Eurostat whether these data can be provided in the future (see work to do). Until these data are available, Labour Force Survey (LFS) data on occupational class based on ISCO can be used as an alternative (see references).
LFS applies ISCO classification on 4 digit level for the main job and 3 digit level for the previous occupation, SILC applies ISCO at 2 digit level. The former therefore is more suitable for calculating occupational classes according to ESeC.
Economically inactive persons should also be assigned to occupational classes to prevent underestimation of health inequalities. This can be achieved through using the last (main) occupation instead of current occupation, and/or by assignment of occupational class at household level instead of individual level.
Occupational class should only be measured as of age 25, as most socioeconomic characteristics are not yet established for many young persons. If possible people aged 65+ should be included, but in practice (good) data for the elderly are often unavailable in surveys.
Both LFS and ESS cover the population residential within private households from the age of 15. (N.B. in LFS demographic data are collected for all age groups, labour market related data only for persons aged 15 and over).
Disadvantage of ESS compared to LFS is the relatively small sample sizes.
Occupational class (measured by means of the ISCO classification) can also be a good tool for stratifying register data. This is the case for mortality data in particular (see recommendations of the Monitoring socio-economic differences in health indicators in the European Union-project).
Social Class in Europe: An Introduction to the European Socio-economic Classification. David Rose and Eric Harrison (eds). Routledge/ESA studies in European Societies, 2010.
Definition
