Standard Occupational Classification Codes: Gaps in Federal Data on the Public Health Workforce

Employer Demand and Desired Skills for Public Health Graduates: Evidence From Job Postings

Objectives. To determine whether job postings from employers seeking master of public health (MPH) graduates require skills aligning with Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH) competencies. Methods. I analyzed a data set of 70 343 job postings in the United States for MPH graduates from Lightcast, a data vendor that collects, cleans, and analyzes millions of job postings per year. I contrasted skills from the postings with CEPH competencies. Results. Most postings were from for-profit industry, academia and research, or hospitals and health care, with only 12% from government. The skills from job postings aligned well with CEPH competencies, but some CEPH competencies did not appear in the top skills in job postings. Conclusions. Although accredited public health degree programs provide key competencies demanded by employers, they can improve graduate employability by ensuring that their graduates also obtain specific technical skills listed in job postings. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(12):1388-1393. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307834).

Occupation classification model based on DistilKoBERT: using the 5th and 6th Korean Working Condition Surveys

Background

Accurate occupation classification is essential in various fields, including policy development and epidemiological studies. This study aims to develop an occupation classification model based on DistilKoBERT.

Methods

This study used data from the 5th and 6th Korean Working Conditions Surveys conducted in 2017 and 2020, respectively. A total of 99,665 survey participants, who were nationally representative of Korean workers, were included. We used natural language responses regarding their job responsibilities and occupational codes based on the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations (7th version, 3-digit codes). The dataset was randomly split into training and test datasets in a ratio of 7:3. The occupation classification model based on DistilKoBERT was fine-tuned using the training dataset, and the model was evaluated using the test dataset. The accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score were calculated as evaluation metrics.

Results

The final model, which classified 28,996 survey participants in the test dataset into 142 occupational codes, exhibited an accuracy of 84.44%. For the evaluation metrics, the precision, recall, and F1 score of the model, calculated by weighting based on the sample size, were 0.83, 0.84, and 0.83, respectively. The model demonstrated high precision in the classification of service and sales workers yet exhibited low precision in the classification of managers. In addition, it displayed high precision in classifying occupations prominently represented in the training dataset.

Conclusions

This study developed an occupation classification system based on DistilKoBERT, which demonstrated reasonable performance. Despite further efforts to enhance the classification accuracy, this automated occupation classification model holds promise for advancing epidemiological studies in the fields of occupational safety and health.

Salary Disparities in Public Health Occupations: Analysis of Federal Data, 2021‒2022

Objectives. To assess salary differences between workers within key public health occupations in local or state government and workers in the same occupations in the private sector. Methods. We used the US Department of Labor's Occupational Employment and Wage Survey (OEWS). Referencing previous studies matching Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes with health department occupations, we selected 44 SOC codes. We contrasted median salaries in OEWS for workers in each occupation within state or local government with workers in the same occupations outside government. Results. Thirty of 44 occupations paid at least 5% less in government than the private sector, with 10 occupations, primarily in management, computer, and scientific or research occupations paying between 20% and 46.9% less in government. Inspection and compliance roles, technicians, and certain clinicians had disparities of 10% to 19%. Six occupations, primarily in social work or counseling, paid 24% to 38.7% more in government. Conclusions. To develop a sustainable public health workforce, health departments must consider adjusting their salaries if possible, market their strong benefits or public service mission, or use creative recruitment incentives such as student loan repayment programs for hard-to-fill roles. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(3):329-339. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307512).