Criterion validation of a proposed revision of government social classifications

Phase 2 of the ESRC/ONS Review of UK Government Social Classifications has involved the production of an interim revised socio-economic classification (SEC) which is to be validated against existing schemes, and to be further refined before presenting to the government for application in the 2001 Census. In order to collect data with which to test the criterion validity of the interim SEC, twelve questions - indicators of employment relations and conditions for employees - were included on the ONS Omnibus Surveys for April, May and July 1996. This paper reports on initial analyses of these data and on the criterion validation of the interim classification. The results give good evidence that the interim SEC correlates with the employment attributes for which it is a proxy measure, and that it does so at least as highly as the current instantiation of the Goldthorpe schema.