Occupational Categories in the United States
Occupational Categories and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The occupational categories for the equal employment opportunity-9 are as follows:
Administrative Support Workers – Includes all clerical-type work regardless of level of difficulty, where the activities are predominantly non-manual though some manual work not directly involved with altering or transporting the products is included. Includes: bookkeepers, collectors (bills and accounts), messengers and office helpers, office machine operators (including computer), shipping and receiving clerks, stenographers, typists and secretaries, telegraph and telephone operators, legal assistants, and kindred workers.
Craft Workers- Manual workers of relatively high skill level having a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the processes involved in their work. Exercise considerable independent judgment and usually receive an extensive period of training. Includes: the building trades, hourly paid supervisors and lead operators who are not members of management, mechanics and repairers, skilled machining occupations, compositors and typesetters, electricians, engravers, painters (construction and maintenance), motion picture projectionists, pattern and model makers, stationary engineers, tailors, arts occupations, hand painters, coaters, bakers, decorating occupations, and kindred workers.
Laborers and Helpers – Workers in manual occupations which generally require no special training who perform elementary duties that may be learned in a few days and require the application of little or no independent judgment. Includes: garage laborers, car washers and greasers, grounds keepers and gardeners, farm workers, stevedores, wood choppers, laborers performing lifting, digging, mixing, loading and pulling operations, and kindred workers.
Officials and Managers – Occupations requiring administrative and managerial personnel who set broad policies, exercise overall responsibility for execution of these policies, and direct individual offices, programs, divisions or other units or special phases of an agency’s operations. In the federal sector, this category is further broken down into four sub-categories: (1) Executive/Senior Level – includes those at the GS-15 grade or in the career Senior Executive Service, (2) Mid-Level – includes those at the GS-13 or 14 grade, (3) First-Level – includes those at or below the GS-12 grade and (4) Other – includes employees in a number of different occupations which are primarily business, financial and administrative in nature, and do not have supervisory or significant policy responsibilities, such as Administrative Officers.
Operatives – Workers who operate machine or processing equipment or perform other factory-type duties of intermediate skill level which can be mastered in a few weeks and require only limited training. Includes: apprentices (auto mechanics, plumbers, bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, machinists, mechanics, building trades, printing trades, etc.), operatives, attendants (auto service and parking), blasters, chauffeurs, delivery workers, sewers and stitchers, dryers, furnace workers, heaters, laundry and dry cleaning operatives, milliners, mine operatives and laborers, motor operators, oilers and greasers (except auto), painters (manufactured articles), photographic process workers, truck and tractor drivers, knitting, looping, taping and weaving machine operators, welders and flame cutters, electrical and electronic equipment assemblers, butchers and meat cutters, inspectors, testers and graders, hand packers and packagers, and kindred workers.
Professionals- Occupations requiring either college graduation or experience of such kind and amount as to provide a comparable background.
Technicians – Occupations requiring a combination of basic scientific knowledge and manual skill which can be obtained through two years of post high school education, such as is offered in many technical institutes and junior colleges, or through equivalent on-the-job training.
Sales – Occupations engaging wholly or primarily in direct selling.
Service Workers- Workers in both protective and non-protective service occupations.