Management and Budget Office July 22, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Under 31 U.S.C. 1104(d) and 44 U.S.C. 3504(e), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is seeking public comment on the Standard Occupational Classification Policy Committee's (SOCPC) recommendations presented in this notice for revising the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) for 2018. The review and revision of the 2010 SOC is intended to be completed by the end of 2016 and then released for use beginning in reference year 2018. The SOC is designed to reflect the current occupational structure of the United States; it classifies all occupations in which work is performed for pay or profit. The SOC is intended to cover all such jobs in the national economy, including occupations in the public, private, and military sectors. All Federal agencies that publish occupational data for statistical purposes are required to use the SOC; State and local government agencies are strongly encouraged to use this national system to promote a common language for categorizing and analyzing occupations. In a prior Federal Register notice (79 FR 29620, May 22, 2014), OMB and the SOCPC requested comments on: (1) The proposed revision to the 2010 SOC Classification Principles, (2) the intention to retain the 2010 SOC Coding Guidelines, (3) the intention to retain the 2010 SOC Major Group structure, (4) the correction, change, or combination of 2010 SOC detailed occupations, and (5) proposals for new detailed occupations. The classification principles, coding guidelines, and occupations recommended in this notice reflect consideration of the comments received in response to the May 22, 2014, notice and represent the SOCPC's recommendations to OMB. OMB, in consultation with the SOCPC, plans to consider comments in response to this notice in making its final decisions for the 2018 revision and plans to publish its decisions in the Federal Register. The SOCPC then plans to finish preparing the Standard Occupational Classification Manual 2018 for publication, including finalizing occupational definitions, selecting associated job titles, and developing a crosswalk to the 2010 SOC. Request for Comments: In addition to general comments on the SOCPC's recommendations for the 2018 SOC, OMB welcomes comments specifically addressing: (1) Changes to the 2018 SOC Classification Principles and Coding Guidelines recommended by the SOCPC; (2) the proposed hierarchical structure of the 2018 SOC, including changes to the major, minor, broad, and detailed occupation groups; (3) the titles, placement, and codes of new occupations that the SOCPC is recommending be added in the revised 2018 SOC; and (4) preliminary definitions for revised and proposed 2018 SOC occupations. The proposed hierarchical structure and preliminary definitions for the revised 2018 SOC are available on the SOC Web site at: www.bls.gov/soc. All comments submitted in response to this notice may be made available to the public, including by posting them on relevant Web sites. For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary information. Please include contact information and a phone number or email address with your comments to facilitate follow-up if necessary.