Field entry, published 2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z, updated 2026-11-03T00:00:00.000Z. Group: Major Group 0: Armed forces occupations
How are other ranks classified?
| Major group | Major Group 0: Armed forces occupations, ISCO-08, ILO |
|---|---|
| Skill level | Skill levels 1, 2 and 4, ISCO-08, ILO |
| Code ladder | Major Group 0, followed by the ILO levels for sub-major, minor and unit groups beneath it |
Classification only, not a job decision
This page explains other ranks classification in general terms only and does not assign any reader to a rank, group or code.
Other ranks are classified in ISCO-08 as the third family within Major Group 0, at skill level 1. The family covers ranked service personnel who are neither commissioned officers nor non-commissioned officers, and whose work centres on carrying out assigned military duties under supervision. A post belongs here when its defining task is personal performance of those duties, rather than command of a unit or supervision of a section.
What kind of duties does this family cover?
Other ranks perform the wide range of hands on military work that keeps a force functioning. That work can include operating equipment, maintaining vehicles and weapons systems, standing guard, carrying out patrol and sentry duties, handling stores and supplies, driving, cooking, signalling under direction and taking part in exercises and operations as a member of a team. The list is deliberately open ended, because the family is defined by position in the hierarchy, not by a single specialty. Two members of the other ranks may do very different daily tasks and still share a classification family, because both serve as ranked personnel under supervision.
Entry level service illustrates the family clearly. A new recruit who has completed basic training and joins a unit as a private, seaman, airman or equivalent rank performs assigned duties, follows orders from non-commissioned officers and officers, and builds competence through practice and further training. As experience grows, a member of the other ranks may take on more complex tasks and greater trust, without necessarily moving into a supervisory post. Classification follows the post, so greater competence within the same kind of post does not by itself shift the family.
What does skill level 1 mean here, and what does it not mean?
Skill level 1 in ISCO-08 describes work that normally requires basic education and short training or on the job instruction for competent performance, with tasks that are relatively straightforward in range and complexity. Applied to other ranks, the level reflects the classification view of the occupation as defined: assigned duties carried out under close direction, with training provided by the service itself. It is a statement about the occupation’s place in the ISCO-08 skill model, not a judgement about the person holding the post, the danger of the work or the discipline it demands.
Military service at this level can be physically demanding, hazardous and highly disciplined, and those qualities sit outside the skill level definition. ISCO-08 does not measure courage, endurance or risk. It measures the complexity and range of tasks and the formal education or training normally linked to competent performance. Readers who equate skill level 1 with unimportant work misread the system. In a force, other ranks form the largest part of the ranked strength in many countries, and without their work, command and supervision would have nothing to direct.
How are other ranks separated from the two officer families?
The separation turns on authority over other people and on planning scope. Commissioned officers hold formal command and plan at unit level or above. Non-commissioned officers supervise sections and teams and enforce standards for other personnel. Other ranks, by contrast, are supervised rather than supervisors in the formal sense. They may guide a newcomer, help a colleague or lead by example, but the post does not carry recognised supervisory authority over a section, and it does not carry command responsibility for a unit.
That test helps with borderline cases. A senior member of the other ranks who trains recruits informally, or who is the most experienced person in a small detail, remains in this family while the post itself stays a personal performance post. Once a post formally includes supervision, with the rank and authority that go with it, the non-commissioned family becomes the better fit. The distinction is about the post as defined, not about respect earned in service, which classification cannot measure.
Why does this family matter for comparison?
Grouping other ranks separately gives statisticians a broad measure of the base of a force, distinct from its supervisory and command layers. Countries differ in how many ranks they use, in what they call each rank and in how quickly personnel move upward, but the broad split into officers, non-commissioned officers and other ranks remains intelligible across those differences. That intelligibility is the point of an international classification. It sacrifices detail about specialties and grades in order to gain a frame that different national systems can all map onto.
Anyone who needs specialty detail, grade by grade strength or the composition of a particular branch should turn to national defence statistics or service records. ISCO-08 will show the shape of the force in three broad layers. National sources will show what fills each layer, service by service and specialism by specialism. Both views are useful, and neither replaces the other.
Sources checked
Back to the Major Group 0: Armed forces occupations group or browse all occupations.