Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (L.A.FANS): Occupation Coding

RESPONSE:

Chapter 4 of the LAFANS main codebook describes how the occupation codes were created. They are based on the codes used in 1990 Census of Population and Housing. The footnote citing the source of the occupation codes says: “CPH-R-4, 1990 Census of Population and Housing: Classified Index of Industries and Occupations: 1990. This document is a companion to the Alphabetical Index (CPH-R-3). Industry and occupation titles are arranged by classification code. It presents for each category in the industrial and occupational classification systems the individual titles that constitute the category.”

This Census document talks about the relationship between the 2000 Census occupation codes and those used in 1990 (which are the codes LAFANS uses) with appendices listing the 1990 and 2000 census codes. (Note: The L.A. FANS project team found this document when searching for CPH-R-4 and it seemed to illustrate that 1990 and 2000 census codes differed and that the SOC codes are not what are used in the Census.)

As noted above, the LAFANS did not use the SOC codes but used those from the 1990 Census. The above pdf shows the 2000 SOC equivalents for the 2000 Census codes. It has the 1980 SOC equivalents for the 1990 Census occupation codes. It does not show any crosswalk between 1990 Census occupation codes and 2000 SOC codes.

The 2-digit codes in the LAFANS represent combinations of 3-digit 1990 Census occupation codes and are not just the 1st two digits. There is a crosswalk table (Table A.1) in Appendix A of the LAFANS main codebook that shows which 3-digit codes are used to create each 2-digit code. Appendix A shows what the 3-digit codes represent. Table 4.4 in the LAFANS Main codebook shows what the 2-digit codes represent. All of this is discussed in Chapter 4 of the LAFANS main codebook.