For calculating the population of currently employed persons age 16 to 65 who are working in agriculture I could either use code 6 in OCCISCO (“Skilled agricultural and fishery workers”) or code 10 in INDGEN “Agriculture, fishing, and forestry”.
What would be the preferred variable for our purposes?
OCCISCO identifies, according to the major categories in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) scheme for 1988, a person’s primary occupation. Whereas INDGEN is an industry classification; where industry refers to the activity or product of the establishment or sector in which a person worked. Which you should use depends on the purpose of your analysis (i.e. are you interested in occupational information or industry information). For example, a person may work in the agricultural industry, but that does not necessarily mean they are a farmer.
We also have several other work related variables available for international samples that you may wish to explore.