English summary
The Swedish Standard Classification of Occupations 1996 (SSYK 96) is a national adaptation of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-88) published in 1990 by the International Labour Office, Geneva.
ISCO-88 and SSYK organise occupations in a hierarchical framework. They are based on two main concepts: the concept of kind of work performed – defined as a set of tasks or duties designed to be executed by one person – and the concept of skill, defined as the skill level – the degree of complexity of constituent tasks – and skill specialisation – the field of knowledge required for competent performance of the constituent tasks.
Four skill levels are defined at the most aggregate level, the major groups. These four skill levels are operationalised in terms of the educational categories and levels of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 76). The use of the ISCED categories to define the skill levels does not imply that the skills necessary to perform the tasks and duties of a given job can be acquired only through formal education. The skills may be, and often are, acquired through informal training and experience.
Within the context of harmonised occupational statistics for the European Union, an agreed variant of ISCO-88 has been developed, ISCO-88(COM). Although there are some differences between ISCO-88(COM) and ISCO-88, it should not be regarded as a different classification from ISCO-88, but rather as the result of a co-ordinated effort by National Statistical Institutes to implement ISCO-88 for census and survey purposes.
SSYK is a hierarchical classification comprising four levels, major groups, sub-major groups, minor groups and unit groups. It should be noted that whenever a class in SSYK corresponds to ISCO-88(COM), the title in most cases has been taken from ISCO-88(COM) and is thus not always an equivalent translation of the Swedish title.
In order not to lose the comparability with ISCO, the ambition has been to minimise the changes on the three highest levels.
SSYK major groups with number of sub-groups and skill levels:
Sub-major Minor Unit ISCO
Major groups groups groups groups skill level
1 Legislators, senior officials and managers 3 6 29 --
2 Professionals 4 21 67 4th
3 Technicians and associate professionals 4 19 72 3rd
4 Clerks 2 8 17 2nd
5 Service workers and shop sales workers 2 7 27 2nd
6 Skilled agricultural and fishery workers 1 5 11 2nd
7 Craft and related trades workers 4 16 58 2nd
8 Plant and machine operators and assemblers 3 20 59 2nd
9 Elementary occupations 3 10 14 1st
0 Armed forces 1 1 1 --
Totals 27 113 355
Skill levels:
a. The first ISCO skill level is defined with reference to ISCED 76 category 1, comprising primary education which generally begins at the age of 5, 6 or 7 and lasts about five years.
b. The second ISCO skill level is defined with reference to
ISCED 76 categories 2 and 3, comprising first and second
stages of secondary education. The first stage begins at the age of 11 or 12 and lasts about three years, while the second stage begins at the age of 14 or 15 and also lasts about three years. A period
of on-the-job training and experience may be necessary, sometimes formalised in apprenticeships. This period may supplement the formal training or replace it partly or, in some cases, wholly.
c. The third ISCO skill level is defined with reference to
ISCED 76 category 5, (category 4 in ISCED 76 has been deliberately left without content) comprising education which begins at the age of 17 or 18, lasts about three years, and leads to an award not equivalent to a first university degree.
d. The fourth ISCO skill level is defined with reference to
ISCED 76 categories 6 and 7, comprising education which also begins at the age of 17 or 18, lasts about three, four or more years, and leads to a university or postgraduate university degree, or the equivalent.