The Census Bureau implemented minor revisions to the Alphabetical Index of Occupations during the 2020 data year. The occupational index covers over 32,000 job titles. Each job title listed in the index is matched to the corresponding occupation code among the 570 census occupation codes. Clerical coders at the National Processing Center (NPC) use the index to assign the best occupation code to a respondent using information from the class of worker, industry, and occupation questions. 

Minor revisions to the index are done to manage unlisted job titles that have been reported in a census or survey numerous times. It also ensures that currently listed job titles are still being assigned to the best occupation code available.

The latest minor revisions to the occupation index entries had a noticeable impact on the estimates of 0426 - Personal service managers, all other, 4330 - Supervisors of personal care and service workers, and 1240 – Other mathematical science occupations.

After review by subject matter expert analysts in the Industry and Occupation Statistics Branch, select job titles entries that were previously assigning the occupation code 4330 were modified to now assign the occupation code of 0426.

During the annual review of the ACS data, a decline in the estimate of Supervisors of personal care and service workers became evident. However, the decline could not solely be attributed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that affected the major group of service workers. The larger than expected decline, coupled with an increase in the estimates for Personal service managers, all other revealed the effects of the changes to the occupation index.

In the case of 1240 – Other mathematical science occupations, new job title entries were added to the occupation index. The job title entries were added to fine-tune the index for the new 2018 SOC occupation of 15-2051 – Data science analysts. These new job titles consolidated responses that were previously being assigned to numerous different occupation codes.