The Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families serves as a foundational reference for classifying federal positions within the General Schedule (GS) and Federal Wage System (FWS). It provides detailed definitions and classification guidance for 23 occupational groups and 36 wage-grade job families, including a system of asterisks that indicate the type of classification standard issued for each series.
Key Insights
- Part one of the handbook covers 23 occupational groups under the General Schedule and includes series definitions and an alphabetical listing of series numbers.
- Part two outlines 36 job families within the Federal Wage System and provides similar classification information for wage-grade positions.
- An asterisk system, ranging from one to three, identifies whether a series has a full classification standard, only a flysheet, or belongs to a broader job family standard.
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All right, and so let's look at the Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families. The Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families gives you a series of definitions for all of the 23 occupational groups in the general schedule. It's located in part one.
There are 23 occupational groups, and within those occupational groups, it lists the series numbers. It gives you the GS series in alphabetical order, also. And so part one is for general schedule positions.
Part two lists the 36 job families in the federal wage system. And again, part one is for the general schedule. It lists the 23 occupational groups.
It gives you series definitions for every series within those 23 occupational groups. And it also gives you a list of series in alphabetical order. Part two lists the 36 job families within the federal wage grade system.
It gives you the series definition for those 36 job families. Now, in the Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families, there's a little guide there. Beside each series is an asterisk.
One asterisk, two asterisks, or three asterisks. There's a legend at the bottom of each page that tells you what type of classification standard was issued. If it has one asterisk, it denotes that a single classification standard was issued.
A single position classification standard was issued. If it has two asterisks, it only has a flysheet. A flysheet.
Only a flysheet was issued for those two asterisk series. Okay? A flysheet is only three to five pages. It only gives you the basic information in the standard.
It does not give you any evaluation criteria. You're to use a flysheet in conjunction with another closely related classification standard or the primary standard. And three asterisks are a job family standard.
A job family standard lists more than one series within that job family. There may be two job family standards, one for technical and clerical, and another for professional or administrative. And professional and administrative are never going to be combined in a technical or clerical job family standard.
They separate them based on, remember the Pacto categories. They're going to separate them based on the Pacto categories. And so you want to be able to understand what the asterisks tell you.
Right? And so I want to give you another example. In the Human Resources Management Series, the 201, within the 200 occupation group, there are three asterisks. This is to let you know that the 200 series for human resource management for the 201 is a job family standard.
All right? And so the Handbook of Occupation Groups and Job Families is used to ensure that you're using the proper standard when you're starting to classify a position or when you get ready to classify a position. You must verify that you are using the appropriate series standard to classify a position.
