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>> The following is a short video with tips on collecting occupation and industry data for research or health surveillance. For this video, we will assume you are collecting current occupation and industry, which refers to the job or jobs a person has at the time of an interview and the corresponding industry. The goal of this video is to help researchers and public health practitioners improve industry and occupation data collection. Good industry and occupation data help us to better understand how a person's job is related to their health. We need information on work-related injuries and illnesses to identify and prevent work-related hazards. Get insight into the circumstances surrounding injuries or illnesses. This information may lead to early event detection. Are we seeing something new happening that hasn't been an issue before? If so, why is it happening? And what can be done to prevent it from happening again. Finally, compiling and analyzing data about work-related outcomes will help guide research and prevent work-related injuries and illnesses in the future. It's important to understand the difference between occupation and industry. They are not interchangeable terms. Occupation is what a person does for a living or the type of job they have -- the actual work they do. Often this will be the person's job title. Examples of occupation include income tax investigator, groundskeeper, registered nurse, computer programmer, medical laboratory technician, and restaurant manager. Industry, on the other hand, is the type of business where people work, what the company produces, or the service they provide rather than what the individual does. Examples of industry include tire manufacturing, an advertising agency, a golf course, retail drug stores, a general hospital, or an airport. Be sure to collect both occupation and industry. While either occupation or industry based on detailed responses can be helpful, it's easier to understand exactly what the person does if both occupation and industry are collected. So do your best to get both. We look at occupation and industry as pairs. It's more difficult to understand each on its own. Sometimes we need to know the industry to understand the occupation. It is best to have both because sometimes hazards are specific to an occupation, and sometimes they are specific to a certain industry. To get the best occupation and industry responses, it's better to ask what the person's occupation is first and then ask about their industry. This is because more people are familiar with their job title and more easily confused about their industry. A good prompt for collecting the person's occupation is, what kind of job do you have? Or what is your job title. To gather the person's industry, ask what type of business are you in? Or, what does your company make or do? Here are some examples of vague versus specific documentation of occupation and industry. Sometimes you need to ask some follow-up questions to get a more specific occupation. A response of agent is very broad and doesn't give much information. You may need to ask what type of agent are you? For example, an insurance agent or a sales agent. The same with a driver. Ask them to be more specific. Are they a taxi driver, limo driver, truck driver, or bus driver? For a technician, a more detailed response would be a civil engineering technician, dental technician, or x-ray technician. If someone says they are a maintenance worker, ask them what kind of maintenance work do you do? And offer examples such as groundskeeper, janitor, carpenter, or electrician. If they say they work in a warehouse or work in a shipping department, you might use the prompts to learn that they are a warehouse forklift operator, a warehouse manager, or a warehouse packing worker. Remember, it's important to get the most specific response you can. If someone provides a vague response, ask follow-up questions to get a more specific answer. Here are some examples of vague and more specific responses for a person's industry. If the person says they work in a repair shop, ask, what type of repair shop? Responses might be auto repair shop, machine repair, or shoe repair shop. Another common vague response is education or school. Ask specifically, what kind of educational facility or what type of school is it? Some examples are preschool, elementary school, college, or air conditioning technical school. If the person works in an office, try to find out what kind of office it is. For example, a dentist office or an auto insurance office. Another common vague response is automobile industry. A more detailed response would be automobile manufacturing, automobile sales, or auto repair. If they say they work in wholesale, which is a company that buys goods in bulk from manufacturers and sells to retail stores, ask what kind of wholesale? A response might be wholesale grocery supplier, wholesale paper goods, or wholesale clothing supplier. Some common responses where more detail is needed are healthcare or medicine. Ask what type of facility do you work at? Some possible responses are general hospital, home health care agency, or outpatient clinic. OK. Now, let's go over a few case scenarios to help you think about the best documentation of occupation and industry based on a person's responses. In the first case, the person says she works at a company that builds airplane engines as an engineer. You may ask what type of engineer are you? Based on her response, her occupation would be electrical engineer, and her industry is aircraft engine manufacturing. In this case, engineer is a bit vague, so it's better to clarify if possible. Sometimes when we have detailed industry information like aircraft engine manufacturing, we may be able to deduce what she is, but it's always better to ask. Here the person is an auto mechanic working in the tire and lube department at a grocery super center. In this case, his occupation is an auto mechanic, and his industry would be auto repair because he works in the tire and lube department. This could get confusing because the person works at a grocery super center, which is a retail store. But he's part of the department within the grocery super center, which is not retail. In other words, his department offers a different service or product than the store. Here the person states she is a self-employed artist with a studio above the garage in her home. Her occupation is artist, and the industry would be self-employed in the arts. This person is a welder working for a company that fabricates steel structures in a factory. Their occupation is welder, and the industry is steel fabrication or steel product manufacturing. In this last scenario, the person is a farmer whose main crop is soybeans. Their occupation is farmer, and the industry is soybean farming. Here it is important to distinguish between livestock and crop farming as their industry. Also, note farmer is different than farmworker or farmhand. Let's review. Occupation is what a person does for a living. Industry is the type of business or activity at their place of work. Do your best to collect both occupation and industry so that we can understand better what the person does. It is important to ask the person what their occupation is first because people are more familiar with explaining occupation than the industry where they work. Be sure to ask probing questions to get more specific responses. Here are some additional resources developed to help with collecting occupation and industry.

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We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals and organizations to this training module.

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