Standard Occupational Code (SOC) Support

The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system is a federal statistical standard used by federal agencies to classify workers into occupational categories to collect, calculate, or disseminate data.

As of April 2019, all workers are classified into one of 867 detailed occupations according to their occupational definition. To facilitate classification, detailed occupations are combined to form 459 broad occupations, 98 minor groups, and 23 major groups. Detailed occupations in the SOC with similar job duties, and in some cases skills, education, and/or training, are grouped together. 

Key Takeaways

• SOC Codes are needed for South Carolina, effective the First Quarter of 2024. 
• SOC Codes are needed for Washington state, effective the Fourth Quarter of 2022. 
• The missing SOC report AQ within Avionté now includes WA and will produce a Greenshades file for WA SUI with its new release on 10/13/2022.
• The missing SOC report AQ was updated on 9/9/2022 with WA.
• Please refer to this article for more information: ESDWAGOV - About SOC (external content - State of Washington)
• SOC Codes are also needed for West Virginia.

For information on the SOC and a list of the codes, please visit the BLS website: https://www.bls.gov/soc/

Quarterly SUTA Filing

Several additional data points are now required for quarterly SUTA filing in Indiana including: Standard Occupational Codes (SOCs), Primary Zip Code, and Seasonal Codes. Due to several states already requiring SOCs, we now support SOCs for all states. Additionally, for Indiana, the Seasonal Code and Primary Zip Code information is also now included. 

Get Missing SOC Data AQ

The Standard AQ - Missing SOC, generates a list of Job Titles missing an SOC.

The AQ currently searches for:

• work performed in the last six months
• work performed in Indiana, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina, Washington, and West Virginia.

Standard Occupational Code Support

Several states now require Standard Occupational Codes (SOC) to be included in their SUTA reporting, so with the release of Standard Occupational Code Support, we will now allow the setup of a SOC on Job Positions/Job Titles. 

States that require this information as of October 2022:

• Indiana
• Louisiana
• Alaska
• Washington
  
  

States that require this information as of April 1, 2023:

• West Virginia
  
  

States that require this information as of April 1, 2024:

• South Carolina
  
  
  

Seasonal Codes

Indiana now requires the reporting of "Seasonal Codes" to indicate employment type (full-time, part-time, seasonal). Avionté will support basic full-time/part-time determination (based on the quarter's average hours worked, for non-zero hour weeks, and the defined minimum hours to be considered full-time) in the generated Greenshades XML for SUTA filing in Indiana. 

All custom seasonal codes and employees who are FT/PT outside of the above definition will have to be manually updated in GreenShades.

State Definition: https://www.in.gov/dwd/3334.htm#fulltime

Employers may define the minimum hours worked weekly to be considered full-time in the staffing supplier property GS_FullTimeMinimumAverageHoursWorked. By default, the value of this property is 32. 

How Avionte determines hours worked:

• All transactions that have week worked in a quarter (for which data is being generated) with property "IncludeInACAHours" set to True will be included in the calculation, and the "UnitsToHoursMultiplier" is used to calculate the actual hours (note: UnitsToHoursMultiplier is set to 0 we assume a multiplier of 1). 
• Weeks with pay unit = 0 are not included in the hours calculation
• Important note: We include hours from all locations worked

Primary Zip Code

Indiana has added the requirement of an employee's Primary Zip Code to be included in the SUTA filing information. A Primary Zip Code is the worksite zip code where the employee spends the most time. We will determine this information by the most hours worked per Indiana worksite zip code (using the data for determining Seasonal Code). This zip code will then be added to the generated GreenShades XML under the employee.

State Definition: https://www.in.gov/dwd/3334.htm#zipcode

How Avionté Determines Primary ZIP Code

Using the same transaction data group as Seasonal Code, the primary zip code is determined from the state in which the largest amount of hours is worked in the period.  

Setup & Reporting

Standard Occupational Codes are set up in Avionté Admin Tools > System > Skill Codes

An advanced query titled Get Missing SOC Data Advanced Query (AQ) is available. This AQ generates a list of Job Titles missing an SOC.

The AQ currently searches for:

• work performed in the last six months
• work performed in Indiana, Louisiana, Alaska, and Washington

Supplier Property Review/Adjustment

1. Navigate to Start Page > Actions Menu > Admin Tools > Category = Employer > Select Employer

2. In the Detail tab > Supplier Properties area, search for the property used to define the minimum hours needed to be considered full-time.

   
   
   
   

3. Review the minimum number of hours.
   
   1. To adjust the minimum number of hours needed, mouse over the corresponding cell in the Value column to reveal the Edit button. Click Edit.
   2. Enter the number of hours that the business considers full-time employment
      
      1. The default value will be 32
      2. This value will be used to determine the Seasonal Code for IN state SUTA reporting

Map SOCs to Job Positions

1. Navigate to Start Page > Actions Menu > Admin Tools > Category = System > Skill Code
2. Each skill code with "Is Job Position" checked for any branch, should have a SOC association
   
   
   
   Searches can be done for SOC codes by entering the beginning code [example "11-"] in the search box and pressing enter. The system lists the codes starting with 11-. You can use a wildcard of "%" to see all the codes.
   
   SOC LookUp results appear in the drop-down area below the search field:
   
   
   

   Grouping: The groupings column aids the user in filtering down to the proper SOC code. Groupings include:

   • Major
   • Minor
   • Broad
   • Detailed

   
   Inactive: The inactive column aids the user to see the Standard Occupational Classification Codes [SOC] that are no longer active, and with the addition of the DRM, the user will be notified if they are using an inactive SOC code.
   The Warning displayed in this case is: "A Job Position with an active Standard Occupational Code is required for SUI filings for this worksite state." A Yes/No option is given to continue despite the warning.
   It is at this point that you would want to select the more granular code that your selection is being replaced by.

   
   
   1. Follow the normal GreenShades XML generation process for US state quarterly filings (SUTA)
      1. SOC codes are included for all orders with job titles that have SOC set
         
         
      2. Seasonal Codes are now reported per employee in the <EmployementType> node
         1. An "FT" seasonal code is assigned when an employee averages the set number of hours to be considered full time
         2. A "PT" seasonal code is assigned when an employee works less than the set number of hours to be considered full time
            
            
      3. Primary Zip codes are now included at the employee level <WorksiteID><wZip></wZip></WorksiteID>
         
         
      4. If SUTA data is generated for a state which requires SOC reporting, and the SOC is not set for the job title, an error will occur

Additional Data Verification

To help ensure SOCs are set up for each used Job Title/Job Position, upon placing a temporary order with a worksite in AK, IN, LA, WA, or WV, a warning will occur in the following scenarios:

1. No Job Title (aka Skill Code) is selected
   
   
2. Selected Job Title (aka Skill Code) does not have a SOC setup

When generating quarterly data in GreenShades, if there is any payroll data in AK, IN, LA, WA, or WV...

1. Missing a Job Title (aka Skill Code) set on the Order, then a warning indicating the orders missing the Job Title data is returned.
2. Missing SOCs association for the Order > Job Title, a warning indicating the Job Titles (aka Skill Codes) missing the SOC data is returned.

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