European conference on quality in official statistics

Rome, 8-10 July 2008

How to assess the quality of the Italian classification of occupations

Francesca GalloPietro Scalisi

Aim of the presentation

How to transpose and adapt Eurostat definition of quality which is thought for a statistic to the sphere of a classification

Results of our assessment as far as the classification of occupation is concerned

Actions and instruments we have set up in order to better meet quality criteria

Comparability

Statistic: “…extent to which differences between statistics are attributed to differences between the true values of the statistical characteristic”

Classification: differences between statistics collected in different countries or at different

times should not be addressed to the classification tool

Comparability

The Italian classification of occupation is a derivation of the International Standard

Classification of Occupation (ISCO88 and ISCO08)

A clear mapping of the national classification into the international one makes space comparison feasible

Relevance

Statistics: “… degree to which statistics meet current and potential users’ needs”

Classifications: … degree to which classifications meet current and potential users’ needs

Relevance

The need to better satisfy users’ needs (labour market researchers, policy makers) led Istat to improve the 2001 National classification of occupation

Nomenclature of the occupational units (2006)

adds a further digit (the 5th) to the 2001 classification, i.e. splitting the 519 4-digit codes into 805 5-digit codes; gives a general description of the tasks and duties of the 5-digits involved in the classification.

Accessibility and clarity

Download versionOccupations quick search

Accessibility and clarity

Look-up the 5-digit structure

Accessibility and clarity

Occupations descriptions

Accessibility and clarity

Isco 88 code

Coherence

Statistics: “…. statistics originating from different sources convey coherent messages”

Classification: …criteria inspiring the classification structure are in accordance with data on occupations coming out from statistical sources

Coherence

Do Isco (and the derived national classification) criteria comply with the characteristics of the Italian occupations stemming from statistical surveys?

Isco is based on the concept of skill level

MAJOR GROUPS

Education level (ISCED) as a skill level proxy

1. LEGISLATORS, SENIOR OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS

-

2. PROFESSIONALS 6+7

3. TECHNICIANS 5

4. CLERKS 2

5. SERVICE AND SALES WORKERS 2

6. CRAFT, TRADES AND AGRICULTURAL SKILLED WORKERS

2

7. PLANT AND MACHINE OPERATORS 2

8. ELEMENTARY OCCUPATIONS 1

9. ARMED FORCE -

Coherence

What are the leading characteristics of the occupations performed in the Italian labour market?

Istat survey on occupation

The object was :

to describe 805 occupational units (the 5th digit of the classification of occupation) in terms of skills, knowledges, abilities, generalised work activities, … requirements.

Coherence

A sketch of the survey on occupations

A sample of workers of a given occupational unit is asked to assess the importance and level of a given set of skills, knowledges, abilities, generalised work activities needed to perform their current job.

Their answers are used to obtain an occupational unit mean profile in term of skills, knowledge, abilities, generalised work activities requirements

Coherence

A sketch of the survey results

  Occupations

Skills (a given set of 35 skills) Occ_1 Occ_2 Occ_3 .. Occ_n=805

Writing 90 82 43 .. 88

Speaking 10 66 54 .. 100

Active learning 20 60 44 .. 19

Monitoring 23 43 40 .. 54

Problem identification 7 54 30 .. 44

Negotiation 45 44 20 .. 40

Service orientation 12 40 23 .. 30

Reparing 88 30 7 .. 82

Judgement and decision making 100 82 45 .. 33

Time management 19 66 12 .. 77

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Management of Personnel resources 67 60 56 .. 28

Table - Importance of a given skill for the performance of the occupation (values range 0-100)

Coherence

The observed skills.Is it consistent with the classification criteria?

Installation Repairing Monitoring

machines

Complex problem solving Time management Critical Thinking

Service orientation Social Perceptiveness

Adaptability

Equipment maintenance

Monitoring machines

Controlling equipments

PRODUCTION

VERSUS

SERVICES

LEGISLATORS, SENIOR OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS

PROFESSIONALSTECHNICIANS

SERVICE AND SALES WORKERS

CLERKS

CRAFT, TRADES AND AGRICULTURAL SKILLED WORKERS

PLANT AND MACHINE OPERATORS

ELEMENTARY OCCUPATIONS

Manual activities versus Intellectual activities

Coherence

Timeliness

Statistic: “… the length of time between information availability and the event or phenomenon it describes”

Classification: it should integrate the changing signals coming from the world of occupations as soon as they occur

The feedback from the real world

The classification is used in the labour force survey

The feedback coming from the interviewers network will help us to understand and integrate the changing signals of the occupation world into the classification

Timeliness

Accuracy

Statistics: “… the closeness of estimates to the exact or true values”

Classification: the closeness of the codes attributed to a given occupation by different interviewers to the exact code

Accuracy

3.2.1.6.1 – Dietist

Interviewer_n

Interviewer_1

Interviewer_2

…………

True code Codes attributed by:

MSE can be caused either by the classification tool and by the interviewer’s effect

Accuracy

Monitoring action to estimate the ‘wrong-code’ percentage in the Labour Force Survey

concentration of the wrong codes in some specific place of the classification

This led us to

add more details to the definitions of those specific occupations and to plan training sessions in order to make the use of the classification instrument as objective as possible

Classification

tool