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Warwick Institute for Employment Research

Labour market classification and measurement

IER has built up a significant reputation in the area of occupational research, in defining and classifying occupations as well as understanding ways of measuring and monitoring occupational change. This work has been combined with in-depth labour market analysis and the design of socio-economic classification systems and related software developments. Research areas of interest include:

  • Occupational change
  • Monitoring
  • Measurement

IER contributed to the development of a publicly available European database of occupations to support comparative cross-national socio-economic research in the EU. We were also responsible for the creation, revision and modification of standard occupational classifications (SOC) for the Office of National Statistics, which is used in all official sources of occupational information, and contributed to the development of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO), working with national statistical offices of EU member states and the International Labour Office.

IER has wide ranging expertise in methods of coding, and has developed coding for statistics for higher education and methods of complex coding. The latter methodological development led to the production of CASCOT (Computer-assisted Structured Coding Tool), a set of software programs now used extensively across the UK for coding textual information to the standard occupational and industrial classification systems. The most recent application of this software is for the coding of occupation and industry text descriptions as captured in the 2011 Scottish Census of Population.

Selected publications

  • Elias, P., Ellison, R. and Birch, M. (2012). Scoping the Development and Implementation of a 5-digit version of the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC 2010). Paper prepared for UKCES. Coventry: Warwick Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick.

  • Elias, P. and Birch, M. (2010). SOC2010: Revision of the Standard Occupational Classification. Economic & Labour Market Review, 4(7), pp. 48-55.
  • Tagiyeva, N., Semple, S., Devereux, G., Sherriff, A., Henderson, A.J., Elias, P. and Ayres, J.G. (2011). Reconstructing past occupational exposures : how reliable are women's reports of their partner's occupation? OEM Online, 68(6), pp. 452-456.
  • Office for National Statistics (2010). Standard Occupational Classification 2010. Vol. 1, Structure and descriptions of unit groups. London: ONS. (In the revision and compilation of this classification, the Government Statistical Service acknowledges the major work undertaken by staff at the Institute for Employment Research by Professor Peter Elias and Margaret Birch).
  • Jones, R. and Elias, P. (2004). CASCOT: Computer-assisted Structured Coding Tool. Coventry: Warwick Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick.
  • McKnight, A. and P. Elias (2003). Earnings, Unemployment and the NS-SEC. In: Rose, D. and Prevalinin, D.J., eds. A Researcher's Guide to the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification. London: Sage Publications Ltd., pp. 151-172.
  • McKnight, A. and Elias, P. (2003). Empirical Variation in Employment Relations and Conditions. In: Rose, D. and Prevalinin, D.J., eds. A Researcher's Guide to the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification. London: Sage Publications Ltd., pp. 50- 76.
  • McKnight, A. and Elias, P. (2003). Validating the NSSEC: Employment Relations and Condition. In: Rose, D. and Prevalinin, D.J., eds. A Researcher's Guide to the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Further publications can be accessed from the IER publication pages.

Selected recent projects

  • Data preparation to enable projections of international skills comparisons, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) (2013)
  • DASISH - Data Service Infrastructure for the Social Sciences and Humanities, FP7(2012) More Details
  • Developing a Prototype Careers LMI Database (Supplement - Scoping 5 digit SOC2010), UK Commission for Employment and Skills (2012)
  • SOC2010 for HESA, Higher Education Statistics Agency (2011)
  • Coding Parental Occupations, University of Essex (2011)
  • Evidencing an Enhanced Occupational Structure for the Social Care, Children and Young People's Workforce in the UK, Skills for Care (2010)
  • Revision of the Standard Occupational Classification, Office for National Statistics (2007 - 2010)
  • Developing a Detailed 8 Country Occupations Database for Comparative Socio-economic Research in the European Union - EUROCCUPATIONS, EU (2006 - 2009) More Details
  • A European Socio-Economic Classification, European Commission (2004 - 2006)

Links and other information

  • CASCOT Cascot is a computer program designed to make the coding of text information to standard classifications simpler, quicker and more reliable. The software is capable of occupational coding and industrial coding to the UK standards developed by the UK Office for National Statistics.
  • ISCO88 ISCO 88 (COM) - the European Union variant of ISCO 88
  • SOC2010 revision

Key contact

Peter Elias