|CURRENT POPULATION REPORTS Technical Studies º Series P-23, No. 11 May 12, 1964 LIFETIME OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY OF ADULT MALES MARCH 1962 The proportion of men 25 to 64 years old occupational inheritance and occupational self whose occupation is in the same major occupa recruitment for a number of reasons includ tion group as that of their fathers was not ing shifts in occupational composition over quite l in H, i.e., 23 percent, in 1962. The time, supply and demand factors, and differen tendency for a man to follow the occupation of tial birth rates. An occupation with declining his father, referred to here as "occupational numbers, like farming, may have high self inheritance," varied in degree from one occupa recruitment but moderate or low occupational tional origin to another. About H.1 percent of inheritance; whereas the professional, techni the men whose fathers were professional, tech cal, and kindred occupations, a rapidly expand nical, and kindred workers were engaged in the ing group, manifest only a moderate degree of same occupational group, whereas only 10 to 15 self-recruitment despite relatively high occu percent of the sons of clerical workers, sales pational inheritance. workers, service workers, laborers, and farm These findings are from a supplemental laborers were in the same lines of work as study of Occupational Changes in a Generation their fathers (see figure 1). Variations are carried out in connection with the March 1962 also noted when the data are viewed from the Current Population Survey. The supplemental Standpoint of the current occupation. Occupa questionnaire data were obtained on behalf of tions varied in the extent to which their ranks and at the expense of a research project, Occu were filled with persons whose fathers were in the same occupation, that is, through "self pational Changes in a Generation in the United recruitment." Of the total number of men whose States, which is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to the University Current occupations were classified as farmers and farm managers, no less than 85 percent had of Chicago, with Professors Peter M. Blau (Uni versity of Chicago) and Otis Dudley Duncan (Uni fathers who were farmers. At the opposite ex versity of Michigan) as investigators. In the treme, only 5 percent of clerical workers had study each adult male respondent designated fathers in the same occupation group. Occupa the occupation in which his father (or other tions differed in the relative magnitude of person who may have been the family head) was "- engaged at the time the respondent was about lé years old. The study also provides information * In this report, the term "occupational inheritance" on the first regular full-time job and the pres– is used when the measure of occupational mobility is based on the distribution by father's occupation. Thus, ent occupation of the respondents. the percent of men with a given father's occupation who *re currently following the same occupation is referred This is the first time that the Bureau of tº as the percent of occupational inheritance. The term the Census has presented statistics on life "self-recruitment" is used when the measure is based on time occupational mobility, although earlier ºrrent occupation. The percent of men currently in a £ºven occupation whose father's occupation was the same surveys have dealt with job changes over short is referred to as the percent of self-recruitment. periods of time. U. S. DEPCC. CRY CC For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 20402, 15 cents. to NCT DSCARD Annual subscription (Series P-20, P-23, P-25, P-27, P-28 summaries, P-60, and P-65, combined), $4.00; foreign mailing, $5.25. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Luther H. Hodges, Secretary BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, Richard M. Scammon, Director Figure l .-PERCENT OF OCCUPATIONAL INHERITANCE AND OF SELF-RECRUITMENT, BY OCCUPATION-MALES 25 TO 64 YEARS OLD IN THE EXPERIENCED CIVILIAN LABOR FORCE, FOR THE UNITED STATES: MARCH 1962 OCCUPATIONAL I NHERITANCE OCCUPATIONAL S ELF-RECRUITMENT 50 40 30 20 10 0 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1 00 ALL G ROUPS PROFESSIONAL, T ECHNICAL, AND KINDRED WORKERS MANAGERS, O FFICIALS, AND PROPRIETORS, EXC. FARM SALES W ORKERS CLERICALND A KINDRED WORKERS CRAFTSMEN, F OREMEN, AND KINDRED WORKERS OPERATIVES A ND KINDRED WORKERS SERVICE W ORKERS, INCLUDING PRIVATE HOUSEHOLD LABORERS, E XCEPT FARM AND MINE FARMERSND A FARM MANAGERS FARM L ABORERS AND FOREMEN 040 5 60 PERCENT EXPECTED OBSERVED SOURCE: T able 4 The p ronounced historical shift from farm to rent o ccupational attachments. The movement out nonfarm occupations in the United States is re of farm work had left about 1 man in 9 in farming flected in the data on occupational origins and in among those 55 to 64 years old, as compared with backgrounds, summarized in three broad occupation about 1 in 18 among those 25 to 34 years old. In categories in table A. About two- fifths of the addition to these shifts out of farm work, it may oldest cohort in the study (men 55 to 64 years old) be noted that within the lifetime of each group had fathers who were farm workers, i.e., farmers occupational mobility had produced a decline in and farm managers or farm laborers and foremen. the proportion working on farms. Thus, for each By contrast, the proportion was just over one- of the four age categories in table A, the propor fifth for the men 25 to 34 years old. The same tion with farm origins (father's occupation) was shift appears when first jobs of successive age greater than the proportion with first jobs in groups are compared. About 1 in 4 of the older men, but only 1 in 9 of the younger men began farm work; and this in turn was greater than the their occupational careers in farm work. The con- proportion whose current occupational attachment t.y»c.t. between age groups is evident again in cur was in farm work. -Architectural Library S7Z3 Tdble A. —PERCENT DISTRIBUTION OF CURRENT OCCUPATION, FIRST JOB, after the percentages in one distribution lire sub AND FATHER'S OCCUPATION, BY BROAD OCCUPATION GROUP--NONIN- tracted from the corresponding percentages in the STITUTIONAL MALE POPULATION 25 TO 64 YEARS OLD, BY AGE, FOR THE UNITED STATES: MARCH 1962 other. This minimum, or net, mobility contrasts sharply with the observed proportion, 77 percent, Broad occupation group of men 25 to 64 years old who are in a different Age and stage of Manual major occupation group from their fathers. As Total White- and Farm collar table B shows, the observed (gross) intergenera- service workers workers workers tional mobility for each of the four age groups greatly exceeded the minimum or net mobility. 25 to 34 years: 5.6 Current occupation.. 100.0 40.7 53.7 Table B. --SUMMARY OF MOBILITY BETWEEN MAJOR OCCUPATION GROUPS First job 100.0 30.9 58.0 11.1 Father ' s occupation . 100.0 27.2 50.5 22.3 (Civilian noninstitutional population, March 1962) 35 to 44 years: Current occupation.. 100.0 41.6 52.1 6.3 Percent changing major First job 100.0 26.5 57.0 16.5 occupation group Mobility Father's occupation. 100.0 24.0 46.5 29.5 Type of mobility index: and age Mini Ex MR X 100 45 to 54 years: mum1 served pected1 (C)-(A)' 39.1 53.1 7.8 Current occupation. 100.0 (A) (B) (C) First job 100.0 26.2 52.0 21.8 Father's occupation. 100.0 21.9 43.5 34.6 FATHER'S OCCUPATION TO 55 to 64 years: CURRENT OCCUPATION2 Current occupation. 100.0 38.6 50.1 11.3 100.0 26.6 47.9 25.5 First job Total, 25 to 64. 23.1 76.9 87.9 83.0 100.0 20.8 37.9 41.3 Father's occupation. 25 to 34 years 20.0 77.0 87.9 84.0 35 to 44 years 24.2 77.1 87.9 83.0 1 Current occupation is for the experienced civilian labor 45 to 54 years 26.0 77.5 87.7 83.5 force only; first job and father's occupation are for all per 55 to 64 years 28.5 75.8 87.4 80.2 sons reporting. FIRST JOB TO CURRENT The movement out of farming revealed in com OCCUPATION3 paring the distribution of fathers' occupations Total, 25 to 64. 33.5 73.7 72.6 with that of first jobs, and first jobs with cur 25 to 34 years 23.9 66.6 86.8 67.8 35 to 44 years 33.0 74.9 88.4 75.6 rent occupations, was, for each age, paralleled by 45 to 54 years 38.7 77.3 89.8 75.4 a movement into white-collar occupations. In each 55 to 64 years 40.9 77.4 90.7 73.2 age group the increase in white-collar jobs was FATHER'S OCCUPATION TO comparatively slight between father's occupation FIRST JOB4 and first job, but relatively substantial between Total, 25 to 64. 44.5 79.0 90.4 75.1 first job and current occupation. There was, cor- 25 to 34 years 38.2 78.6 89.3 79.1 relatively, a shift into manual jobs from father's 35 to 44 years 42.5 79.2 89.9 77.3 45 to 54 years 47.6 78.9 90.8 72.4 occupation to first job; but the shift toward man 55 to 64 years 52.1 79.2 91.4 69.1 ual occupations between first job and current oc 1 For definition, see text.