Ascertained for persons 14 years of age and over in the experienced civilian labor force or in the labor reserve. Employed persons were to report the occupation at which they worked the most hours during the reference week. The experienced unemployed and persons in the labor reserve were to report their last occupation. (Excludes the small number of experienced unemployed persons who last worked more than 10 years ago).

In 1960, respondents were asked to describe what kind of work they were doing, for example, 8th grade English teacher, farmer, grocery checker, etc. In 1970, respondents were asked to give this information and, in addition, to specify their most important activities on duties on the job, such as types, cleans building, sells cars, etc., and to indicate their job title. This additional information was requested so that occupation can be coded more accurately.

Information supplied by respondents is assigned an occupation code by clerks. In 1960, there were 11 major occupation groups and an occupation not reported category (listed below). The major occupation groups were divided into 494 items: 297 specific occupations and 197 subcategories which were mainly industry distributions of 13 specific occupations. Tabulations which present the complete range of specific occupations and subcategories are referred to as detailed occupation tabulations. Other tabulations present intermediate levels of classification, combining specific occupations and subcategories into broader groupings.

The occupation classification scheme employed in 1960 is fully described in Bureau of the Census, 1960 Census of Population, Classified Index of Occupations and Industries, available from the Superintendent of Documents.