The Stanard Occupational Classification (SOC) System is a United States government system of classifying occupations. It was developed in response to a growing need for a universal occupational classification system. Such a classification system would allow government agencies and private industry to produce comparable data. Users of occupational data include government program managers, industrial and labor relations practitioners, students considering career training, job seekers, vocational training schools, and employers wishing to set salary scales or locate a new plant. It will be used by all federal agencies collecting occupational data, providing a means to compare occupational data across agencies. It is designed to cover all occupations in which work is performed for pay or profit, reflecting the current occupational structure in the United States. The USA's SOC includes 822 occupational types. The national variants of the SOC are used by the governments of the UK, Canada, and many others.