ISCO-08 is a tool for organising jobs into a clearly defined set of groups according to the tasks and duties undertaken in the job. ISCO-08 was developed to facilitate international comparisons of occupational statistics and to serve as a model for countries developing or revising their national occupational classifications.
The framework used for the design and construction of ISCO-08 is based on two main concepts: the concept of job, and the concept of skill.
A job is defined in ISCO-08 as “a set of tasks and duties performed, or meant to be performed, by one person, including for an employer or in self-employment”. Occupation refers to the kind of work performed in a job.
The concept of occupation is defined as a “set of jobs whose main tasks and duties are characterised by a high degree of similarity”. A person may be associated with an occupation through the main job currently held, a second job, a future job or a job previously held.
Skill is defined as the ability to carry out the tasks and duties of a given job. For the purposes of ISCO-08, two dimensions of skills are used to arrange occupations into two groups:
This is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation;
Skill specialisation – considered in terms of four concepts:
The ISCO-08 divides jobs into 10 major groups:
Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Classification_of_Occupations
