Northwest Region (1430)

NCSL International Announces

A CALL TO ACTION

“The US Dept. of Labor rejects petition to recognize Metrology job descriptions in its proposed 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System”

We know that Metrology is the bedrock upon which all U.S. commerce and manufacturing is built and that persons engaged in metrology / calibration activities provide services vital to the U.S. economy and national defense. It is also widely known that in the United States there is a critical shortage of technical personnel posed to replace retiring baby-boomers. The U.S. Dept. of Labor’s SOC provides formal recognition of job descriptions which are the basis for its Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) used by educators and counselors to inform students about career opportunities. If the SOC does not include Metrology job descriptions neither will the OOH. The following is the reason given by an SOC administrator as to why Metrology job descriptions were rejected;

“The three occupations that you proposed, which I believe were Metrologist, calibration technician, and calibration engineer, were not accepted at the workgroup level, and the SOC Policy Committee accepted the workgroup’s decision. This was in part because of concerns that Census and BLS would not be able to collect and report data on those occupations.”

Proposed 2010 SOC changes may be found at:

www.bls.gov/soc/soc_structure_2010.pdf.

Note: The SOC is updated once every 10 years. The proposed changes to the 2010 SOC has a comment period of May 23 thru July 21, 2008. We need your help to convince the U.S. Dept. of Labor that Metrology job descriptions should be included in the 2010 SOC.

Please e-mail your comments to: soc@omb.eop.gov with the subject line: 2010 SOC

Your comments should include the logic and reasoning as to why the SOC should include Metrology job descriptions because this is the focus of SOC administrators when evaluating comments. Some compelling arguments for including Metrology job descriptions in the SOC are:

“There are no existing standard occupational classifications that describe what tasks Metrology / Calibration practitioners perform.”

“Searching the SOC for ‘Calibration’ and ‘Metrology’ finds no standard occupational classifications. Searching the SOC for ‘Calibrate’ finds two unrelated standard occupational classifications that erroneously use the word ‘calibrate’ to describe ‘alignments’ they perform.”

“Metrology / Calibration practitioners provide services critical to the U.S. economy and national defense.”

“There are thousands of people in the U.S. employed in Metrology / Calibration positions.”

You may also contact Katherine K. Wallman, Chief Statistician, Office of Management and Budget, 10201 New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503, telephone number: (202) 395-3093, fax number: (202) 395-7245.

It is critical that the SOC hears from you! Please send this e-mail to all interested parties and encourage both those in the metrology profession and those familiar with the profession to e-mail the SOC.

We can make a difference if we all get involved!