Varieties of Good Jobs: A Latent Class Analysis of Job Preferences in the United States

• In Event: 2451 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 27. Worker Well-being

Abstract

Building on the recent developments in the literature on the characteristics and constituent factors of a “good job,” this paper aims to show the multidimensional structure of individuals’ preferences for various job characteristics. Overcoming the limitations of past studies that measured job quality and desirability with a single, homogeneous scale, this study found several heterogeneous subgroups in the U.S. population that exhibit qualitatively different systems of job preferences. It examines whether the proportional composition of the subgroups have changed over time from 1980s to 2010s and what factors have a significant influence individuals’ job preference. The latent class analysis of five waves of ISSP work orientations data shows that there are four major subgroups that have continued to exist across the five surveys. The first group is have-it-alls, the largest group in the population, who view that all eight kinds of job characteristics are important. The second group is pragmatists, who value economic and pragmatist aspects of jobs more than other aspects. The third group is dualists, who show self-regarding and other-regarding orientations at the same time. The fourth group is spirited, who do not value economic aspects of a job too much but instead put a heavier weight on autonomy and social/altruistic dimensions of a job. The paper also examines the longitudinal trend of the group composition over time and the effect of the 2008 economic depression on individuals’ job preferences. Based on multinomial logistic regression of latent classes, it also examines how individuals’ job preferences are shaped by their sociodemographic statuses.

Authors

• Chan-Ung Park, Yonsei University

• Dong-Kyun Im, Seoul National University