The version of the Lightcast Occupation Taxonomy currently in use (Version 6) was released in 2023 and has been updated in 2025 with new concepts and relationships. These changes ensure that the taxonomy continues to accurately reflect the evolving labor market and are part of our commitment to provide you with the best representation of the real world labor market at all times. The new version of the taxonomy will be referred to as Version 7 or v7.
What’s New in Version 7
Version 7 introduces completely new roles, representing emerging specializations such as NLP Engineer, ML Engineer, and Generative AI Engineer. It also includes mergers of some Specialized Occupations that may have had low posting and profile document recall and fewer defining characteristics. These mergers reduce unnecessary granularity, such as the various specific types of delivery drivers, sales engineers, and product managers.
Availability and Implementation
Version 7 of the LOT is now available as an option in the Snowflake database and on the Classification API (including classifier fuctionality) and the Models API will be updated soon. Please note that it will not be the default option; you will need to actively select LOT v7. It will be available for all postings and profiles data. The LOT API changelog is here.
On April 11th, the occupation data in Analyst and other web applications will switch to v7 of the LOT. At that time, the data in Snowflake and the APIs will begin using v7 as the default option for LOT. On April 14th the occupation data in Labour Insight in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will begin using v7 of LOT.
Summary of Key Changes
Here is a summary of changes at each level of the taxonomy. We have also prepared a correspondence containing all structural, label, and code revisions between v6 and v7, available for download at the bottom of the page.
1) Occupation Group: Three Groups have been relabelled in v7, as shown in the table below.
Version 6 label | Version 7 label |
Construction Managers | Construction Administration |
Broadcasting and A/V Technicians | Media Production Technicians |
Promotional / Commercial Modeling | Modeling |
2) Occupation: There are 25 new occupations in v7, seven are completely new concepts, 14 occupations have been “promoted” from Specialized Occupations, and four that have resulted from dividing existing Occupations.
3) Specialized Occupation: There are 25 completely new concepts, and four that have resulted from dividing existing Specialized Occupations. 97 Specialized Occupations have been merged with existing concepts.
There are no changes at the Career Area level. It is also important to note, for data users concerned with continuity, that 92 percent of the LOT Occupation concepts remain unchanged, and 89 percent of the LOT Specialized Occupations remain unchanged. For a complete list of the new concepts, click here.
Spotlight on Specific Changes
The specific additions to the taxonomy cover rapidly emerging specialties, niche but existent concepts (such as Drone Pilot), roles with evolving responsibilities (such as Software Systems Engineer), blue-collar workers (Movers, Field Service Engineers), white-collar roles (Risk Engineer, SalesOps, Business Change), ensuring that our taxonomy continues to reflect the complete spectrum of current and future workforce needs.
Below are additional changes that have been made in Version 7. These are in response to user feedback on the existing taxonomy and research into emerging disciplines in recent years. Some highlights of the improvements to the taxonomy include:
AI / Machine Learning roles are going to have major impacts on the labor market in terms of opportunities and security concerns. Lightcast data will enable meaningful decision-making on how to make the most of the future of AI by preparing institutions and organizations for these impacts.
Power Systems Engineers will now be shown with increased granularity and representation of career pathways within the role, with skills aligned to specializations, influenced by trends such as the shift towards sustainable energy sources and smart grid technologies. Enhanced granularity ensures that engineers are equipped to address these trends effectively, especially for a critical system like Power Systems.
Cybersecurity representation has improved in v7, with changes reflecting the growth of AI, and the changing security demands that many institutions are currently facing.
Drone Pilot is an example of a completely new occupation within the Design, Media, and Writing Career Area. A Drone Pilot operates and maintains a drone, performing a variety of duties, including aerial photography and aerial videography. Drone Pilots may work with government organizations, real estate professionals, surveyors, environmental scientists, and media production companies.
Version 7 also includes several nomenclature updates to better reflect what occupations are called in the real world.
Overall, version 7 displays increased robustness and representation for both demand and supply data, from both job postings and personal profiles, respectively. Lightcast is focusing not just on roles that are high frequency or trending, but also on those roles that are critical to the adaptability, sustainability, and long-term success of organizations in evolving landscapes. For a complete list of the new concepts, click here.
Maintanence of Version 6
Version 6 of the Lightcast Occupation Taxonomy will be maintained until Version 7 becomes the default across Lightcast products, then will remain available in our data products (without updates) until later in the year, when it will be deprecated completely. Details to follow.
We appreciate your feedback as we strive to continually improve the Lightcast Occupation Taxonomy to better serve your occupation taxonomy, analytics, and decision-making needs.
If you have any questions or require assistance with the update, please do not hesitate to contact our support team at [email protected].
Thank you for being a valued Lightcast customer.