Submitted by the South Carolina Department of Employment & Workforce Development
New data to give South Carolina businesses the advantage in hiring and building their workforce.
Once again, South Carolina leads the way in workforce innovation and research, and the state’s businesses will benefit for years to come.
Standard Occupational Classification codes or SOC codes and number of hours worked are two fields that are being added to the quarterly wage reports that are completed in the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce’s tax system, SUITS.
Completing these fields will be optional until April 2024. DEW encourages employers to begin entering SOC codes in the fourth quarter of 2023 since the SOC selections in SUITS will be saved for future quarters.
Here is a quick breakdown of the SOC code addition and what to expect.
What are SOC codes?
SOC codes are the federal standard used to classify workers into the specific category that best matches their jobs.
The SOC is a tiered occupational classification system with four levels. It categorizes jobs into major groups, minor groups, broad occupations, and detailed occupations using a series of numbers.
Why was this new reporting requirement important and necessary?
This began as a national push to create a uniform way to name specific gaps in and share information about the worker shortage. The first step is to identify where the workforce is and where and how it needs to grow. Then, the state can determine how to support the right jobs in the right places. To benefit quickly from this effort, South Carolina is among the first dozen states to implement these measures.
Don’t we already know how many people are working in South Carolina businesses?
With existing data, we can identify how many people are working with different employers and in different industries. For example, we might know that 5,000 people work in healthcare. However, we are not able to determine how many of those 5,000 employees work in HR or finance, as a medical doctor, a hospital receptionist, in the IT department, or as part of the facilities team.
This classification method omits critical information needed to effectively educate, train, and prepare our state workforce.
When did South Carolina decide to implement SOC codes?
Mandatory reporting of the additional fields was included in part of the Statewide Education and Workforce Development Act, signed into law on May 19, 2023, which aims to streamline the education-to-work pipeline in South Carolina. Collecting SOC codes for every South Carolina employee will improve data, decisions, and outcomes for employers, job seekers, and the economy.
How will the information be used?
Some of the people who use this data are industry, students considering career paths, jobseekers, career and employment counselors, educational institutions, and employers planning to set salary scales or locate a new business.
When will I be required to enter SOC codes?
While the fields are live and available for entry now, the first required reporting is for the first quarter of 2024, due by April 30, 2024.
When you enter an employee’s SOC code, it can be saved to your account from quarter to quarter. Once you complete the initial requirement, the only new entries a business will need to make each quarter is for personnel changes.
If I want to start entering SOC codes now, how can I look up the codes?
- Users will be able to look up SOC codes within the State Unemployment Insurance System (SUITS) through their account.
- A link to OccuCoder, a job code-matching application, will also be available for users.
- DEW will dedicate a page on its website to SOC code search information with a dropdown menu format.
- A link to the 2018 Standard Occupational Classification Manual will be placed on the DEW website in PDF format so the search feature (press and hold key “Ctrl” and press key “F”) can be used. The document contains a table of contents, classification principles, coding guidelines, SOC coding structure, approved modifications to the structure, and frequently asked questions.
The state’s economy is strengthened when workers find jobs with a family-sustaining wage and employers fill open positions with prepared workers. Employers are making an investment in their ability to find the workers they need and in a jobseeker’s ability to build a successful career in South Carolina.
For Frequently Asked Questions and ongoing updates, visit https://dew.sc.gov/employers/SOC.
