European conference on quality in official statistics Rome, 8-10 July 2008

1. European conference on quality in official statistics Rome, 8-10 July 2008 How to assess the quality of the Italian classification of occupations Francesca Gallo Pietro Scalisi

2. Aim of the presentation • How to transpose and adapt Eurostat definition of quality which is thought for a statistic to the sphere of a classification • Results of our assessment as far as the classification of occupation is concerned • Actions and instruments we have set up in order to better meet quality criteria

3. Comparability Statistic:“…extent to which differences between statistics are attributed to differences between the true values of the statistical characteristic” Classification:differences between statistics collected in different countries or at different times should not be addressed to the classification tool

4. Comparability The Italian classification of occupation is a derivation of the International Standard Classification of Occupation (ISCO88 and ISCO08) A clear mapping of the national classification into the international one makes space comparison feasible

5. Relevance Statistics: “… degree to which statistics meet current and potential users’ needs” Classifications:… degree to which classifications meet current and potential users’ needs

6. Relevance The need to better satisfy users’ needs (labour market researchers, policy makers) led Istat to improve the 2001 National classification of occupation Nomenclature of the occupational units (2006) • adds a further digit (the 5th) to the 2001 classification, i.e. splitting the 519 4-digit codes into 805 5-digit codes; • gives a general description of the tasks and duties of the 5-digits involved in the classification.

7. Download version Accessibility and clarity Occupations quick search

8. Accessibility and clarity Look-up the 5-digit structure

9. Accessibility and clarity Occupations descriptions

10. Accessibility and clarity Isco 88 code

11. Coherence Statistics: “…. statistics originating from different sources convey coherent messages” Classification: …criteria inspiring the classification structure are in accordance with data on occupations coming out from statistical sources

12. Coherence Do Isco (and the derived national classification) criteria comply with the characteristics of the Italian occupations stemming from statistical surveys?

13. Coherence Isco is based on the concept of skill level

14. Coherence What are the leading characteristics of the occupations performed in the Italian labour market? Istat survey on occupation The object was : • to describe 805 occupational units (the 5th digit of the classification of occupation) in terms of skills, knowledges, abilities, generalised work activities, … requirements.

15. Coherence A sketch of the survey on occupations • A sample of workers of a given occupational unit is asked to assess the importance and level of a given set of skills, knowledges, abilities, generalised work activities needed to perform their current job. • Their answers are used to obtain an occupational unit mean profile in term of skills, knowledge, abilities, generalised work activities requirements

16. Coherence A sketch of the survey results Table - Importance of a given skill for the performance of the occupation (values range 0-100)

17. Coherence The observed skills.Is it consistent with the classification criteria? P R O D U C T I O N V E R S U S S E R V I C E S Manual activities versus Intellectual activities PLANT AND MACHINE OPERATORS • Installation • Repairing • Monitoring machines • Complex problem solving • Time management • Critical Thinking CRAFT, TRADES AND AGRICULTURAL SKILLED WORKERS TECHNICIANS PROFESSIONALS LEGISLATORS, SENIOR OFFICIALS AND MANAGERS SERVICE AND SALES WORKERS ELEMENTARY OCCUPATIONS • Equipment maintenance • Monitoring machines • Controlling equipments • Service orientation • Social Perceptiveness • Adaptability CLERKS

18. Timeliness Statistic: “… the length of time between information availability and the event or phenomenon it describes” Classification:it should integrate the changing signals coming from the world of occupations as soon as they occur

19. The feedback from the real world Timeliness • The classification is used in the labour force survey • The feedback coming from the interviewers network will help us to understand and integrate the changing signals of the occupation world into the classification

20. Accuracy Statistics:“… the closeness of estimates to the exact or true values” Classification:the closeness of the codes attributed to a given occupation by different interviewers to the exact code

21. Interviewer_1 Interviewer_2 ………… Accuracy Codes attributed by: True code 3.2.1.6.1 – Dietist Interviewer_n MSE can be caused either by the classification tool and by the interviewer’s effect

22. Classification tool Accuracy • Monitoring action to estimate the ‘wrong-code’ percentage in the Labour Force Survey • concentration of the wrong codes in some specific place of the classification This led us to • add more details to the definitions of those specific occupations and to plan training sessions in order to make the use of the classification instrument as objective as possible