This Working Paper presents practical guidelines for those who want to develop a
National Standard Classification of Occupations (NSCO) with definitions and descriptions of
the component groups. The principles and procedures described are based on the practical
experiences of many countries, even though the examples are mainly from from Australia. The text
was originally intended to be part of an ILO manual on the development and use of a national
standard classification of occupations. It has, however, proved difficult to finalise the manual, and it
has therefore been decided to issue parts of it in this form. A companion Working Paper provides
practical guidelines on how to register the "occupation" as a characteristic (variable) in a statistical
survey or on administrative records. The two Working Papers can be regarded as preliminary
drafts for the manual, and the ILO Bureau of Statistics would welcome all comments on the texts
and all suggestions for their improvement.