Descriptive dimensions of US occupations with data from the O*NET

Several authors have successfully used the Dictionary of Occupational Titles to construct scales measuring occupational work environments. The Dictionary, however, has been replaced by the Occupation Information Network or O*NET, which offers expanded content and higher quality data. This paper reports an exploratory factor analysis of the O*NET (version 4.0). Four factors are identified. Three factors are comparable to the results of earlier analyses: Substantive complexity, people versus things, and physical demands. A fourth factor, bureaucracy, is discovered that describes work in hierarchical organizations and oriented toward organizational policies and practices. O*NET variables and these factors can be linked to social studies via occupation codes and used as relatively objective and up to date assessments of work environments.