Blackwell Reference Online

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In their empirical research on societal stratification, sociologists in national sample surveys often ask people about their present occupation, first occupation, the occupation of their father and of their mother, and the occupation of their spouse and their siblings. The occupational titles obtained in this way nowadays are coded according to the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labor Office, or the equivalent of this classification used by official national bureaus of statistics. The 1988 ISCO reduces occupational titles to 10 major groups, 28 sub-major groups, 116 minor groups, and 390 unit groups. Major groups are given one digit, unit groups four digits. Since these groups are no more than nominal ones and not attuned to questions in sociology about societal phenomena like downward mobility and “marrying up,” sociologists have developed scales that rank occupations from higher to lower. One way to do so is to have a representative sample of persons rate occupational titles for the standing accorded to them by society at large, with the percent rating an occupation in the highest category giving the value for this occupation on the occupational prestige scale. It turns out that there is much agreement about this among respondents of different backgrounds (if they differed strongly, the scores for all occupational titles ... log in or subscribe to read full text