Appendix 3

What is O*Net and how did we use it?

The US O*NET program is a comprehensive system for collecting and disseminating information on occupational and worker characteristics, sponsored by the US Department of Labor and Employment and Training Administration. At the center of the program is the O*NET database, which contains information on hundreds of standardised and occupation-specific descriptors for over 1000 different occupations. All of these data are structured according to the O*NET “content model”, which defines the key features of an occupation as a standardised set of variables called “descriptors”. The descriptors are meant to provide an exhaustive list of all the worker characteristics, worker requirements and occupation requirements for any given occupation. Information is organised across six “domains” which comprise both worker-oriented characteristics and job-oriented characteristics. Please see table below for illustration of the “content model”.

Much of the information is collected via self-reported assessments by existing employees using standardised questionnaire surveys and is supplemented by professional assessments by job evaluation analysts. These data collection methods are undertaken on an ongoing basis, enabling information to be updated regularly, and has created a rich time-series database of occupation-specific descriptors spanning almost 20 years. All data was mapped into international occupation codes (ISCO) using the publicly available crosswalks from O*NET and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For this paper, the core data used from the O*NET database were the “Skills” and “Generalized Work Activities” sections. For both elements, the “Importance” and “Level” of each skill or characteristic is recorded. The former reflects the degree of importance a particular descriptor has to the occupation and is scored from one (“not important”) to five (“extremely important”). The latter reflects the degree to which a particular descriptor is required to perform the occupation. It is scored according to a 0-7 scale with reference points (or “level anchors”) to help respondents place a value on that range.

The descriptors included in both of these sections are meant to be exhaustive and mutually exclusive. For example, the 35 skill descriptors should provide a comprehensive list of all the skills that might be required by a worker in any given occupation in the US. The table below presents the typology used for the “Skills” and “Generalized Work Activities” sections of the O*NET database.

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August 2019

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