Changes to the National Occupational Classification

Summary of changes

The National Occupational Classification (NOC) has been developed and maintained as part of a collaborative partnership between Employment and Social Development Canada and Statistics Canada.

This update, released on December 16, 2019, mainly focuses on the standardization of the lead statement and of the main duties sections across the classification. Therefore, these sections were modified for most unit groups (sometimes going through only small alterations) in order to improve consistency and ease of reading.

Some specific changes were made to the lead statement, main duties, and employment requirements sections of NOC 3222 – Dental hygienists and dental therapist.

The main duties of NOC 7201 – Contractors and supervisors, machining, metal forming, shaping and erecting trades and related occupations, NOC 7202 – Contractors and supervisors, electrical trades and telecommunications occupations, NOC 7203 – Contractors and supervisors, pipefitting trades, NOC 7204 – Contractors and supervisors, carpentry trades, NOC 7205 – Contractors and supervisors, other construction trades, installers, repairers and servicers, NOC 7301 – Contractors and supervisors, mechanic trades, and NOC 7302 – Contractors and supervisors, heavy equipment operator crews were also modified to add one generic change.

Finally, job titles were added to or deleted from some unit groups across the classification.

Summary of changes

This update to the classification was completed in response to the legalization of cannabis for non-medical use. This has resulted in twenty-five new job titles being created in NOC 2016 to reflect new occupations in the cannabis industry.

Summary of changes

ESDC and Statistics Canada reviewed the proposed changes that were submitted through the consultation process. Structural changes have not been included in this update; these will be taken into account as part of the NOC 2021 revision.

The following tables list the changes made as part of this update:

Summary of changes

The purpose of the 2016 revision of the National Occupational Classification (NOC) has been to: update the classification to incorporate emerging occupations and new job titles while maintaining historical comparability; remove redundant or obsolete job titles to optimize readability and navigation of the NOC; incorporate editorial changes; integrate the concept of inclusions at the unit group level; and add NOC major and minor groups definitions.

The structure of NOC 2016 remains unchanged from that of NOC 2011. No major groups, minor groups, or unit groups have been added, deleted, or combined, though some groups have modified labels or updated content.

Job title changes at the unit group and minor group levels and updates to the definitions of some unit groups reflect added information, correction of terminology to correspond with current usage, and the evolution of some occupations and where they are classified.

Many new job titles have been added to NOC 2016, which arise as the division of labour in Canadian society evolves, creating new jobs and new specializations, and as technological change brings with it new terminology. Some of the titles added to reflect such changes are: geodesist, medical archivist, crime scene examiner, corrosion technologist, video game tester, and biomass plant technicians. Other added titles are modified versions, or alternatives, that appeared in previous versions of the NOC and have been added to help users find particular occupations. For example, power plant stationary engineer appeared in earlier versions of the NOC; operating engineer - power plant has been added.

To clarify the boundaries between occupations, a few titles have been re-assigned to a different unit group in NOC 2016. The impact of this on the comparability of data between 2011 and 2016 is negligible. For example, Admission director – health care has been moved from Managers in health care (0311) to Other administrative services managers (0114). This change will have a minimal impact on the unit groups affected, and provides a more appropriate placement. In all other cases where titles have been moved, this was done to clarify the boundaries and improve content description of these unit groups. For example, the titles ‘tax collector’ and ‘collector of taxes’ were being coded in Collectors (1435) rather than in Employment insurance, immigration, border services and revenue officers (1228).

With the transition to a paperless environment and content digitalization, significant format changes were made to the list of job titles contained in the NOC. To optimize the use of the NOC, redundant or obsolete job titles were removed. In the past, titles appeared in both in natural order (e.g., travel agent) and in inverted order (e.g., agent, travel). Inverted titles used a comma as a separator in the title string making it easier to find titles in a paper publication. As this concept became outdated and redundant in web publications and data files, more than 10 000 duplicates entries were removed for the NOC 2016.

The NOC is structured in accordance with the Generic Statistical Information Model (GSIM): Statistical Classifications Model. In order to comply with the demands of GSIM, the NOC was revised with the addition of inclusions to supplement the existing illustrative examples and exclusions. Inclusions are borderline cases for the unit group. They are presented separately in order to clarify the contents of the class. Note that creation of Inclusions does not change the boundaries of any NOC unit group.

Summary of changes

Table 1 – Modified unit group labels

Table 2 – Modified unit group descriptions

Table 2 contains the list of the 314 of the 500 unit groups that were revised for the 2016 NOC revision. Some unit groups in this list reflect only editorial changes.

Table 3 – Placement of titles in unit groups

Some job titles were moved from one unit group to another to better define the content of the unit groups.

Review and updates were performed to approximately 150 of the 520 unit group descriptions that included the lead statement, main duties, employment requirements, additional information, and classified elsewhere sections. These changes are minor and do not affect data or group boundaries.

Some groups listed reflect editorial changes only. The focus was on the following unit groups:

Modifications and/or additions of new titles, including addition of gender-specific titles, were performed in nearly all 520 NOC unit groups. There are now:

• 42,813 English job titles (example and/or index titles)
• 80,885 French job titles (example and/or index titles)

The NOC is a three-tiered hierarchical arrangement of occupational groups with successive levels of disaggregation:

26 major groups

• Each major group has a unique two-digit code and is composed of one or more minor groups.

140 minor groups

• Each minor group has a unique three-digit code and is composed of one or more unit groups. The first two digits of this code indicate the major group to which the minor group belongs.

520 unit groups

• Each unit group has a unique four-digit code. The first three digits of this code indicate the minor group to which the unit group belongs.

A number of job titles are classified within each unit group. All job titles classified in the same unit group share the same four-digit unit group code. The title or label of the unit group represents the overall contents of the group.

The NOC revision process also included the revision of the NOC Index of titles. Please refer to the introduction in the index of titles for details related to this terminological research project.

There are over 35,000 job titles included in the revised NOC system. Some titles are clearly occupations, such as librarian and chef, while others reflect specializations within an occupational area, such as music librarian and pastry chef. Still, others represent a range of jobs, such as furniture assembler and sawmill machine operator.

These titles are used to describe the work performed by many individuals holding similar jobs within an occupational area. The list of titles in the NOC is not meant to be exhaustive, but attempts to cover the most commonly used and universally understood labels that identify work in the labour market.

A research and consultation program was carried out for the purpose of revising the NOC. The following tables outline the types of structural changes at the minor and unit group levels that have resulted from the revision initiative.

New minor groups

Modified or deleted minor groups

New unit groups

Modified or deleted unit groups

Changes to formerly aggregated unit groups for statistics