The Social Standing of Occupations in the United States, 1963-2012

• In Event: 154 - Regular Session. Public Opinion

Abstract

Public ratings of occupations in the 1960s and again in 1989 provided useful information on hundreds of occupations. These ratings and socioeconomic scales based on them have been very useful for the study of social stratification and mobility. The transformation of manufacturing and the emergence of new occupations in the life sciences, information technology, and financial services threaten to make the old ratings and scales obsolete. In 2012, we undertook, as part of the General Social Survey, a partial replication and comprehensive update of the public rating task. The results show a degree of stability consistent with Treiman's (1977) findings regarding public agreement about social standing over time and place. Respondents in 2012 tended to rate new occupations much as previous samples did. People rated new occupations much as the credentials and pay associated with them would predict. As many of the new occupations employ college graduates, the average social standing among new occupations is quite high. Both credentials and pay continue to predict the popular rankings. Work to decide if the relative weight of these predictors has changed is still on-going but will be finished in time for the annual meeting.

Authors

• Michael Hout, New York University

• Peter V. Marsden, Harvard University

• Tom W. Smith, NORC-University of Chicago