Analytic classes and operational categories and sub-categories of NS-SEC
| Analytic classes | Operational categories and sub-categories | ||
| 1.1 | L1 | Employers in large organisations | |
| L2 | Higher managerial occupations | ||
| 1.2 | L3 | Higher professional occupations | |
| L3.1 | Traditional employees | ||
| L3.2 | New employees | ||
| L3.3 | Traditional self-employed | ||
| L3.4 | New self-employed | ||
| 2 | L4 | Lower professional and higher technical occupations | |
| L4.1 | Traditional employees | ||
| L4.2 | New employees | ||
| L4.3 | Traditional self-employed | ||
| L4.4 | New self-employed | ||
| L5 | Lower managerial occupations | ||
| L6 | Higher supervisory occupations | ||
| 3 | L7 | Intermediate occupations | |
| L7.1 | Intermediate clerical and administrative | ||
| L7.2 | Intermediate sales and service | ||
| L7.3 | Intermediate technical and auxiliary | ||
| L7.4 | Intermediate engineering | ||
| 4 | L8 | Employers in small organisations | |
| L8.1 | Employers in small organisations (non-professional) | ||
| L8.2 | Employers in small organisations (agriculture) | ||
| L9 | Own account workers | ||
| L9.1 | Own account workers (non-professional) | ||
| L9.2 | Own account workers (agriculture) | ||
| 5 | L10 | Lower supervisory occupations | |
| L11 | Lower technical occupations | ||
| L11.1 | Lower technical craft | ||
| L11.2 | Lower technical process operative | ||
| 6 | L12 | Semi-routine occupations | |
| L12.1 | Semi-routine sales | ||
| L12.2 | Semi-routine service | ||
| L12.3 | Semi-routine technical | ||
| L12.4 | Semi-routine operative | ||
| L12.5 | Semi-routine agricultural | ||
| L12.6 | Semi-routine clerical | ||
| L12.7 | Semi-routine childcare | ||
| 7 | L13 | Routine occupations | |
| L13.1 | Routine sales and service | ||
| L13.2 | Routine production | ||
| L13.3 | Routine technical | ||
| L13.4 | Routine operative | ||
| L13.5 | Routine agricultural | ||
| 8 | L14 | Never worked and long-term unemployed | |
| L14.1 | Never worked | ||
| L14.2 | Long-term unemployed | ||
| * | L15 | Full-time students | |
| * | L16 | Occupations not stated or inadequately described | |
| * | L17 | Not classifiable for other reasons | |
For complete coverage, categories L15, L16 and L17 are added as ‘Not Classified’. The composition of ‘Not Classified’ will be dependent on the data source.
The category names used for the NS-SEC do not refer to skill. This is quite deliberate since the classification is not based on skill levels. The categories describe different forms of employment relations, not skill levels. Although the name of the third class in the 3 Class version of NS-SEC is 'Routine and manual occupations' this does not perpetuate the manual/non-manual divide. Changes in the nature and structure of both industry and occupations have rendered this distinction both outmoded and misleading.
