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https://doi.org/10.13094/SMIF-2018-00007
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Validating occupational coding indexes for use in multi-country surveys
[journal article]
Abstract Occupational coding in multi-country surveys is mostly a black box: have national survey agencies classified the same occupational titles into the same category across countries? This paper attempts to validate the coding from 5-digit occupational titles into the 4-digit occupational units of the in... view more
Occupational coding in multi-country surveys is mostly a black box: have national survey agencies classified the same occupational titles into the same category across countries? This paper attempts to validate the coding from 5-digit occupational titles into the 4-digit occupational units of the international ISCO-08 classification, based on a comparison of coding indexes from national statistical offices. Two research objectives are central. To what extent are occupational titles in the coding indexes similar, when comparing their English translations? What percentage of similar occupational titles is coded similarly across countries? To answer these questions, we merged titles from 20 coding indexes (18 non-English), resulting in 70,489 records. We translated the titles in English, using online dictionaries and Google translate (4.2% could not be translated). We checked for existent codes of the titles, using ILO’s ISCO-08 coding index (10.3% non-existent). The remaining database had 60,559 records, of which 32% had at least one duplicate title (19,044 records). These duplicate records could be aggregated into 5,350 occupational titles. Only 64% of these titles had the same ISCO-08 4-digit code, 70% at 3-digit, 74% at 2 digit, and 80% at 1-digit. Users of multi-country surveys should be cautious when using the 4-digit ISCO-08 codes.... view less
Keywords
classification; multilingualism; international comparison; validation; English language; coding; job title; translation
Classification
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Free Keywords
isco-08 classification; multi-country surveys; Occupations; validation; ISCO; International Standard Classification of Occupations
Document language
English
Publication Year
2018
Page/Pages
p. 1-12
Journal
Survey Methods: Insights from the Field (2018)
ISSN
2296-4754
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed