Occupation code (ANZSCO 1st edition) N[NNN]{NN}

Source and reference attributes

Relational attributes

Classification scheme attributes

• Community Services (retired), Superseded 01/10/2013
• Health, Superseded 28/04/2016

The structure of ANZSCO has five hierarchical levels - major group, sub-major group, minor group, unit group and occupation. The categories at the most detailed level of the classification are termed 'occupations'. These are grouped together to form 'unit groups', which in turn are grouped into 'minor groups'. Minor groups are aggregated to form 'sub-major groups' which in turn are aggregated at the highest level to form 'major groups'.

These are the same hierarchical levels that are used in ASCO Second Edition and NZSCO 1999.

Conceptual model

ANZSCO is a skill-based classification used to classify all occupations and jobs in the Australian and New Zealand labour markets.

To do this, ANZSCO identifies a set of occupations covering all jobs in the Australian and New Zealand labour markets, defines these occupations according to their attributes and groups them on the basis of their similarity into successively broader categories for statistical and other types of analysis. The individual objects classified in ANZSCO are jobs.

In ANZSCO, occupations are organised into progressively larger groups on the basis of their similarities in terms of both skill level and skill specialisation.

The conceptual model adopted for ANZSCO uses a combination of skill level and skill specialisation as criteria to design major groups which are meaningful and useful for most purposes. The eight major groups are formed by grouping together sub-major groups using aspects of both skill level and skill specialisation. In designing the major groups, intuitive appeal and usefulness in both statistical and administrative applications were also important considerations.

The skill level criterion is applied as rigorously as possible at the second level of the classification, the sub-major group level, together with a finer application of skill specialisation than that applied at the major group level. Each sub-major group is made up of a number of minor groups.

Minor groups are distinguished from each other mainly on the basis of a finer application of skill specialisation than that applied at the sub-major group level. Within minor groups, unit groups are distinguished from each other on the basis of skill specialisation and, where necessary, skill level.

Virtually all unit groups are at one skill level. There are only eight unit groups which contain occupations at more than one skill level. In all but two of these unit groups, the vast majority of jobs classified to the unit group are at one skill level only. Data stored at unit group level can therefore be aggregated by skill level with a high degree of validity.

Within unit groups, the distinction between occupations amounts to differences between tasks performed in occupations. All occupations are at one skill level.

As a result, data classified at the major group level will provide only a broad indication of skill level. Data at the sub-major group level will provide a satisfactory indication of skill level for many analytical purposes. Data classified at the unit group level will provide an accurate indication of skill level. Unit groups can, therefore, be aggregated by skill level to provide an indicative measure of occupations classified by skill level.