Yesterday, while I was presenting a class, one of the Masters students asked about the availability of data about sex workers. In a sign that I’ve been doing this far too long, I wondered out loud what the National Occupational Classification System coding would be. The class of suggested some possible (typically euphemistic) job categories. Today, I searched the HRSDC site to try to find a definitive answer, since the student asked in all seriousness, and would like data for her project.
I’m not sure if I was surprised to find that there were no results for either “Prostitute” or “Sex worker” (but was DEFINITELY amused to see the list of suggested words for prostitute:http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/noc/english/noc/2011/SearchDescriptionResult.aspx?val27=prostitute&val28=0&val29=0&val30=2&val31=2&val32=2&val33=2&val34=2&val35=2&val36=2&val37=2&val38=1&val39=0&val40=Section).
The closest I could locate (and, sadly, VERY close to what I suggested) was “6564 Other personal service occupations” , which includes (under view all titles) Escort. (http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/noc/english/noc/2011/ProfileQuickSearch.aspx?val=6&val1=6564&val65=*)
Since there doesn’t appear to be a “Not elsewhere classified” category in the NOC (or at least none on the HRSDC site), where are sex workers or prostitutes classified by Statistics Canada when using the detailed National Occupational Classification coding?
Answer
You are correct - 6564 is correct
