Industry and Occupation Coding

1. Misspelled words: Spell information correctly when it’s being collected. It is more likely to code correctly during the autocoding process, (see the Coding  page to learn more about autocoding).
2. Punctuation: Do not enter any punctuation marks (e.g.,{[ ( ) . “ // ?)
3. Blanks: If a respondent doesn’t know or want to provide their industry and occupation, enter a “99” for refused. Do not enter a period (.) or leave a blank space.

Many data sets contain narrative text for industry and occupation, including:

• Vital records systems (birth and death certificates)
• Cancer registries
• Workers’ compensation systems
• Healthcare records
• Health surveys

• Guidelines for Reporting Occupation and Industry on Death Certificates
• A Cancer Registrar’s Guide to Collecting Industry and Occupation
• Collection of I&O Data for Cancer Registry Professionals (Including Online Training)
• Examples of Adequate and Inadequate Information for Occupation and Industry
• Federal Surveys that Contain Industry and Occupation Data

• Industry and Occupation Coding of Cancer Records – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
  Weiss-N, Cooper-S, Hakenewerth-A, Socias-C, Weiss-R, Williams-M
  Presented at the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries 2012 Annual Conference
• Collection and Use of Industry and Occupation (I&O) Data for Cancer Registry Professionals
  Luckhaupt-S, Schumacher-P
  Presented at the Los Angeles Cancer Surveillance Program Annual Symposium on April 14, 2011.

• Efficiency of autocoding programs for converting job descriptors into standard occupational classification (SOC) codes.
  Buckner-Petty S, Dale AM, Evanoff BA.
  Am J Ind Med. 2019; 62:59-68.
• Capture and coding of industry and occupation measures: Findings from eight National Program of Cancer Registries states
  Freeman-MB, Pollack-LA, Rees-JR, Johnson-CJ, Rycroft-RK, Rousseau-DL, Hsieh-MC
  Am J Ind Med. 2017 Aug; 60(8): 689-695
• Health-related quality of life among US workers: Variability across occupation groups
  Shockey-TM, Zack-M, Sussell-A
  Am J Public Health 2017 Aug; 107(8): 1316-1323
• Occupational self-coding and automatic recording (OSCAR): a novel web-based tool to collect and code lifetime job histories in large population-based studies
  De Matteis S, Jarvis D, Young H, Young A, Allen N, Potts J , Darnton A, Rushton L , Cullinan P
  Scand J Work Environ Health. 2017 Mar 1;43(2):181-186
• Computer-based coding of free-text job descriptions to efficiently identify occupations in epidemiological studies.
  Russ DE, Ho KY, Colt JS, Armenti KR, Baris D, Chow WH, Davis F , Johnson A, Purdue MP, Karagas MR, Schwartz K, Schwenn M, Silverman DT, Johnson CA, Friesen MC.Occup Environ Med. 2016 Jun;73(6):417-24
• Industry and occupation in the electronic health record: An investigation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Industry and Occupation Computerized Coding System
  Schmitz-M, Forst-L
  JMIR Med Inform. 2016 Feb; 4(1);e5
• Suicide Rates by Occupational Group — 17 States, 2012
  McIntosh, Spies, Stone, Lokey, Trudeau, Bartholow
  MMWR 2016 July; 65(25);641-645
• Coding of central cancer registry industry and occupation information: The Texas and Louisiana experiences
  Weiss-NS, Cooper-SP, Socias-C, Weiss-RA, Chen-VW
  J Registry Manag. 2015 Fall; 42(3): 103-10
• Computer-based coding of occupation codes for epidemiological analyses
  Russ-DE, Ho-KY, Johnson-CA, Friesen-MC.
  Proc IEEE Int Symp Comput Based Med Syst. 2014 May;2014:347-350
• Beyond crosswalks: reliability of exposure assessment following automated coding of free-text job descriptions for occupational epidemiology
  Burstyn, Slutsky, Lee, Singer, An, Michael
  Ann Occup Hyg 2014 May; 58(4): 482-92
• Methods and feasibility of collecting occupational data for a large population-based cohort study in the United States: the reasons for geographic and racial differences in stroke study.
  MacDonald LA; Pulley L; Hein MJ; Howard VJ.
  BMC Public Health. 2014 Feb; 14: 142.
• Occupation and Industry Coding in HRS/AHEAD
  (Health and Retirement Study Documentation Report DR-021)
  Nolte-M, Servais-M, Megan-T
  Health and Retirement Study, March 2013
• Improving the quality of industry and occupation data at a central cancer registry
  Armenti-KR; Celaya-MO; Cherala-S; Riddle-B; Schumacher-PK; Rees-JR
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine 2010 Oct; 53(10):995-1001
• Attributable risk of carpal tunnel syndrome according to industry and occupation in a general population
  Roquelaure-Y; Ha-C; Nicolas-G; Pelier-Cady-MC; Mariot-C; Descatha-A; Leclerc-A; Raimbeau-G; Goldberg-M; Imbernon-E
  American College of Rheumatology 2008; 59:1341-1348
• Getting to Know U.S. Taxpayers: Selected Tax Data by Occupation and Industry, Tax Year 2005
  Nuriddin_T, Jezek-M, Fernandez-M,
  S. Internal Revenue Service 2006
• The use of occupation and industry classifications in general population studies
  Mannetje-A, Kromhout-H
  International Journal of Epidemiology 2003; 32:419-428
• Commentary: Standardized coding of occupational data in epidemiological studies
  Kogevinas-M
  International Journal of Epidemiology 2003; 32:428-429
• Preliminary Results from the Census 2000 Industry and Occupation Coding
  Kirk-M, Buckles-E, Mims-W, Appel-M, Johnson-P
  S. Census Bureau
  Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Statistical Association, August 2001
• Analyses of public use decennial census data with multiply imputed industry and occupation codes
  N Schenker, DJ Treiman, L Weidman
  Journal of the Royal Statistics Society 1993; 42(3); 545-556
• Occupation and Industry Data from Tax Year 1993 Individual Tax Returns
  Sailer-P, Nuriddin-T
  United States Internal Revenue Service 1999
• Multiple imputation of industry and occupation codes in census public-use samples using Bayesian logistic regression
  CC Clogg, DB Rubin, N Schenker, B Schultz, L
  Journal of the American Statistical Association 1991 Mar;80(413):68-78
• Summary measures of occupational history: a comparison of latest occupation and industry with usual occupation and industry
  Illis-WR; Swanson-GM; Satariano-ER; Schwartz-AG
  American Journal of Public Health 1987 Dec; 77(12):1532-1534
• Using the Census Bureau’s occupation and industry coding system for coding death certificates
  Crouse-W; Schuster-L; Rosenberg-H; Kametani-D; Sestito-J
  Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association 1983
• Adding industry and occupation questions to the behavioral risk factor surveillance system: new opportunities in public health surveillance
  Towle M, Tolliver R, Bui AG, Warner A, Van Dyke M.
  Public Health Rep. (1974) 2015; 130: 153-160.