When researchers use occupation information, they usually want to understand job functions as well as possible exposures.  To do so, it’s helpful to be able to group similar job types together.  The 5-digit National Occupation Code (NOC) system is a standard way to group jobs.  Previously, ATP would look at the job title you typed in and the industry you selected and try to determine which standard job code would match.  As you can imagine, when doing this for all participants it can be a time-consuming process.  Plus – you know your job best.  By asking you to look up the NOC code that best fits your job, it makes it faster and easier for us to provide accurate and standardized occupation data to researchers.  Having both the NOC code and the written job title and industry allows us to check the NOC codes (e.g., sometimes there’s a missing number in the 5-digit code entered – it happens!).  We appreciate you taking the extra steps to provide accurate occupation information for this survey.  If you can’t find a NOC code that you feel matches your job, don’t worry about it – please just ensure you describe your job in the written job title section and select Don’t know for the NOC code.