Smoothing the Turmoil: Harmonization of the 1988 Occupation Codes over Time

Abstract

"This report addresses the challenges that the introduction of the 2010 occupational classification system poses for consistent analysis of employment biographies in Germany. The official transcoding scheme between the old classification of 1988 and the new classification of 2010 has so far been too imprecise, causing structural breaks in the evolution of occupation-specific employment shares. These structural breaks complicate research on employment biographies, potentially biasing results and restricting the analysis period. To tackle these issues, I propose an algorithm that harmonizes the 1988 occupation codes, based on the Sample of Integrated Labor Market Biographies (SIAB). It involves aggregating the 1988 occupations with diverging trends and reassigning specific 2010 occupation codes to more applicable 1988 occupations. The harmonization algorithm reduces the total employment share of the 1988 occupations with severe structural breaks from 34 to about one percent, allowing for a consistent analysis of employment biographies for over 30 years." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Hansch, M. (2025): Smoothing the Turmoil: Harmonization of the 1988 Occupation Codes over Time. (FDZ-Methodenreport 02/2025 (en)), Nürnberg, 28 p. DOI:10.5164/IAB.FDZM.2502.en.v1