ESRC Methods Festival Resources to Analyse Occupations and Social Class: The NS-SEC

1. ESRC Methods FestivalResources to Analyse Occupations and Social Class: The NS-SEC David Rose Institute for Social and Economic Research University of Essex

2. Overview • NS-SEC categories (2) NS-SEC derivation (3) Constructing the NS-SEC

3. 1 Higher managerial and professional occupations (1.1 Large employers and higher managerial) (1.2 Higher professional) 2 Lower managerial and professional occupations 3 Intermediate occupations 4 Small employers and own account workers 5 Lower supervisory and technical occupations 6 Semi-routine occupations 7 Routine occupations 8 Never worked and long-term unemployed The NS-SEC

4. Categories of the Operational Version of the NS-SEC

5. Collapsing the NS-SEC (1) Analytic variables Operational categories Eight (Nine) Class Five Class Three Class L1Employers in large establishments L2Higher managerial occupations 1.1Large employers and higher managerial occupations 1.2Higher professional occupations 1Managerial and professional occupations L3Higher professional occupations 1 Managerial and professional occupations L4Lower professional and higher technical occupations L5Lower managerial occupations L6Higher supervisory occupations 2Lower managerial and professional occupations L7 Intermediate occupations 2 Intermediate occupations 3 Intermediate occupations 2 Intermediate occupations L8Employers in small establishments L9Ownaccountworkers 4 Small employers and own account workers 3 Small employers and ownaccountworkers

6. Collapsing the NS-SEC (2) Analytic variables Operational categories Eight (Nine) Class Five Class Three Class L10Lower supervisory occupations L11Lower technical occupations 5Lower supervisory and technical occupations 4 Lower supervisory and technical occupations 3 Routine and manual occupations 6Semi routine occupations 5 Semi-routine and routine occupations L12Semi-routine occupations L13 Routine occupations 7 Routine occupations L14 Never worked and long-term unemployed 8 Never worked and long-term unemployed Never worked and long-term unemployed Never worked and long-term unemployed

7. Basic SEC Positions EMPLOYERS SELF-EMPLOYED WORKERS EMPLOYEES EXCLUDED Form of employment regulation Service Intermediate Labour Large Small Self-employed Professionals managers Intermediate Supervisors, lower technical semi-routine, routine Never worked Long-term Unemployed The Derivation of the NS-SEC (1.1) (1.2,2,4) (4) (1.1,1.2,2) (3) (5,6,7) (8) (8)

8. Validation studies (a) CRITERION VALIDATION Do measures of employment relations discriminate between the categories of the NS-SEC? (b) CONSTRUCT VALIDATION How well does the NS-SEC explain variance in theoretically relevant dependent variables?

9. Summary • NS-SEC is first a conceptual construction (hence NS-SEC is a schema) • To operationalise the schema we need an algorithm to a detailed set of occupation-by-employment status units

10. Constructing the Derivation Matrix (1) Information required on: • occupation: coded to SOC2000 OUG; • employment status; • number of persons in the establishment (0, 1-24, 25+).

11. Reduced & Simplified versions of NS-SEC Reduced NS-SEC - if no information on establishment size Simplified NS-SEC - if data only on occupation

12. NS-SEC Household Class EITHERHighest Income Householder OR ‘Dominant’ position in labour market

13. Advantages of the NS-SEC • Conceptually clear and rigorous • Simple to create • Flexible in use • Easier to maintain • Better explanatory tool

14. Key Texts on NS-SEC • D. Rose and D. Pevalin (2003) A Researcher’s Guide to the NS-SEC, Sage • D. Rose and D. Pevalin with K. O’Reilly (2005) The NS-SEC: Origins, development and Use, Palgrave Macmillan • ONS (2005) The NS-SEC User Guide, Palgrave Macmillan