Careers in Canada

Careers on Proxima Study website are classified according to the National Occupational Classification (NOC) published by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) and Statistics Canada (StatCan)

The reason Proxima Study chose NOC is its simplicity and benefit to all stakeholders:

• Employers: NOC helps them understand labor market trends, find qualified candidates, and in job description standardization
• Job seekers: in career planning, job search efficiency, and immigration purposes
• Government and agencies: in labor market analysis, program administration, and policy development

In essence, the NOC acts as a common language for understanding and describing occupations, benefiting all stakeholders in the Canadian labor market.

NOC is based on a five-tiered hierarchical structure. The first level contains 10 broad occupational categories, the second level is made up of 45 major groups, the third level consists of 89 sub-major groups, the fourth level gathers 162 minor groups, and the last level comprises 516 unit groups. The ten main categories are:

• • 0 Legislative and senior management occupations
  • 1 Business, finance and administration occupations
  • 2 Natural and applied sciences and related occupations
  • 3 Health occupations
  • 4 Occupations in education, law and social, community and government services
  • 5 Occupations in art, culture, recreation and sport
  • 6 Sales and service occupations
  • 7 Trades, transport and equipment operators and related occupations
  • 8 Natural resources, agriculture and related production occupations
  • 9 Occupations in manufacturing and utilities

This terminology and the five levels to each category may sound overwhelming, especially for non-Canadians: “Occupational categories”, “Major groups”,  “Sub-major groups”, “Minor groups”, and ‘’Unit groups”. To see them in full details on the ESDC website, click here