Because someone asked for the Data.Table version of this, and because the given data.frame solution does not work with data.table, I am providing the solution below.
Basically, use the :=
operator --> DT[x == 0, x := NA]
library("data.table")
status = as.data.table(occupationalStatus)
head(status, 10)
origin destination N
1: 1 1 50
2: 2 1 16
3: 3 1 12
4: 4 1 11
5: 5 1 2
6: 6 1 12
7: 7 1 0
8: 8 1 0
9: 1 2 19
10: 2 2 40
status[N == 0, N := NA]
head(status, 10)
origin destination N
1: 1 1 50
2: 2 1 16
3: 3 1 12
4: 4 1 11
5: 5 1 2
6: 6 1 12
7: 7 1 NA
8: 8 1 NA
9: 1 2 19
10: 2 2 40