What is happening?
Lightcast is updating its job posting classification to align with the SSOC 2024 taxonomy. This update involves two major enhancements:
An improvement in our classification methodology, and
A transition to the latest SSOC 2024 version.
This dual upgrade will improve the accuracy and specificity of our data, while aligning our job postings dataset more closely with government-produced labour market information across Australia and New Zealand.
Availability:
The updated classification will be live in Data Share products (i.e. Snowflake, APIs, etc.) from June 6th, and reflected in Labour Insight from June 9th.
Why are we doing this?
At Lightcast, we are committed to improving the quality and actionability of our labour market data. The new classification model enables more accurate coding now and allows for more frequent updates going forward as the labour market evolves. Further, the improved classifier better distinguishes between occupations, unlocking more granular and precise insights.
The other part of this update, moving to SSOC 2024 unlocks better alignment with government data sources, enabling deeper, more integrated analysis across datasets.
What should clients expect?
As part of this update, all historical job posting records have been reclassified using the new classification methodology and SSOC 2024 framework. This ensures internal consistency and supports accurate trend analysis over time.
As this update involves two changes to our SSOC classification software, you will see shifts in the occupation-level data. We recommend clients rerun existing analyses to reflect the new structure and benefit from improved classification precision.
A full change report of the specific changes in the data is available here.
Change Highlights:
- Improved recall rate for SSOC
Our new classification model assigns valid SSOC codes to a higher percentage of job postings, reducing uncoded entries. This results in greater analytical coverage and better support for research and policy decisions using occupational data.
- Improved granularity
The new methodology more precisely differentiates between job roles. Previously, many roles were grouped under generic occupational concepts Now, these postings are more accurately assigned to specific categories.
- New occupational concepts introduced in SSOC 2024
SSOC 2024 introduces several new occupational concepts to reflect the evolving landscape of the labour market, particularly in the Infocomm Technology (ICT) and Green Economy sectors. These additions aim to capture emerging roles and provide a more accurate representation of current job functions.
These updates ensure that the SSOC remains relevant and accurately reflects the current occupational landscape in Singapore. For a comprehensive overview of the changes, including detailed definitions and correspondence tables, you can refer to the official SSOC 2024 documentation provided by the Singapore Department of Statistics here: https://www.singstat.gov.sg/standards/standards-and-classifications/ssoc
Additional Information
A full change report of the specific changes in the data is available here.
If clients have any questions or would like help interpreting how the classification changes affect specific occupations, please contact us at [email protected]
Our team is happy to provide further clarification or support.