DOI: 10.3886/icpsr39168
title: Occupational Social Distancing Indices, United States, 2019
title: Archival Version

description: Researchers used data from the 2019 Occupational Information Network (O*NET) Work
Context module, which reports summary measures of the tasks used in 968 occupations (National Center for O*NET Development 2020). These data were gathered
through surveys asking workers how often they perform particular tasks and about
the importance of different activities in their jobs. Some of the questions relate to the need for face-to-face interaction with clients, customers, and coworkers, and other questions assess how easily work could be done remotely. Researchers used such questions to build two occupation indices: Face-to-Face (questions on face-to-face discussions and physical proximity) and Remote Work (questions on use of electronic mail, written letters, and phone conversation). Occupational characteristics in the O*NET were measured prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that they do not capture "work practice innovations" that may have been induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the fact that many teachers and professors transitioned from face-to-face to online instruction during the
pandemic.
description: The purpose was to create indices measuring U.S. occupations on work context (remote work and face-to-face interaction) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
description: The O*NET Data Collection Program provides several hundred ratings, based on responses by the sampled workers to the O*NET questionnaires. It was not feasible to ask each respondent to provide information for all data elements. To reduce the burden on respondents, the questions had been organized into three questionnaires, each containing a different set of questions. The sampled job incumbents for each occupation were randomly assigned one of the three questionnaires. All respondents were also asked to complete a task questionnaire and provide some general demographic information. Abilities and Skills information was developed by occupational analysts using the updated information from incumbent workers.
For more information about the study, please visit the

Data Collection page.
description: This study includes 5 variables and 774 cases linked together with the unique id <strong>SOC_2018</strong>. The study includes how often the participants had face-to-face discussions with individuals in their jobs, the participants remote work index and their job titles.

For additional information on the variables, please refer to the documentation and visit the

O*NET website.
description: Presence of Common Scales: "Teleworkability index" Jonathan I. Dingel, Brent Neiman, How many jobs can be done at home?, Journal of Public Economics, Volume 189, 2020, 104235, ISSN 0047-2727, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104235.
description: Information was collected using a two-stage design in which:

1. a statistically random sample of businesses expected to employ workers in the targeted occupations were identified and 
2. a random sample of workers in those occupations within those businesses were be selected. New data was be collected by surveying job incumbents using standardized questionnaires.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Occupational Social Distancing Indices, United States, 2019
description: U.S. occupations.
description: mixed modeThis study is also related to the Linkage Library project

Work Indices - O*NET.