Abstract
The Nam–Powers–Boyd Occupational Status Scale for the year 2000 is introduced here. It is the sixth in a decennial series of such scales that were initiated at the Census Bureau a half century earlier. The bureau's examination of occupational status actually goes back to the end of the 19th century and its thread continues today. The historical background of the 2000 scale, the methodology for constructing the scores, some comparisons with other occupational scales, the 2000 scores themselves, and applications of the 2000 scores are presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, W.A. (1927-1928). Occupational attitudes and choices of a group of college men, 1 and 2, Social Forces 6: 278-283, 467-473.
Baunach, D.M. (2002). Trends in occupational sex segregation and inequality, 1950- 1990, Social Science Research 31(1): 77-98.
Blau, P.M. & Duncan, O.D. (1967). The American occupational structure. New York, NY: John Wiley.
Blishen, B.R. (1958). The construction and use of an occupational class scale, Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 24: 519-531.
Bogue, D.J. (1962). Skid row in American cities. Chicago, IL: Community and Family Study Center.
Bogue, D.J. (1969). Principles of demography. New York, NY: John Wiley.
Cattell, R.B. (1942). The concept of social status, Journal of Social Psychology 15: 293-308.
Clark, R.E. (1948). The relationship of schizophrenia to occupational income and prestige, American Sociological Review 3: 325-330.
Counts, G. (1925). The social status of occupations, The School Review 33: 16-27.
Coutu, W. (1936). The relative prestige of 20 professors as judged by three groups of professional students, {tiSocial Forces} 14: 522-529.
Cready, C.M., Fossett, M.A. & Kiecolt, K.J. (1997). Mate availability and African American family structure in the US nonmetropolitan South, 1960-1990, {tiJournal of Marriage and the Family} 59(1): 192-203.
Deeg, M.E. & Patterson, D.G. (1947). Changes in social status of occupations, Occupations 25: 205-208.
Duncan, O.D. (1961). A socioeconomic index for all occupations, pp. 109-138, in: A.J. Reiss, Jr. (ed.), {tiOccupations and social status}. New York, NY: Free Press.
Edwards, A.M. (1917). Social-economic groups of the United States, Quarterly Journal of the American Statistical Association 15: 643-644.
Edwards, A.M. (1933). A social-economic grouping of the gainful workers of the United States, {tiJournal of the American Statistical Association} 28: 378.
Edwards, A.M. (1943). Comparative occupation statistics for the United States, 1870- 1940. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Gales, J. (1834). Annals of Congress: Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Vol. 1. Washington, DC: Gales and Seaton.
Hartman, G.W. (1934). The prestige of occupations, Personnel Journal 13: 144-152.
Hauser, R.M. & Warren, J.R. (1997). Socioeconomic indexes for occupations: a review, update, and critique, Sociological Methodology 27(1): 177-298.
Hearth-Holmes, M., Murphy, P.W., Davis, T.C., Nandy, I., Elder, C.G., Broadwell, L.H. & Wolf, R.E. (1997). Literacy in patients with a chronic disease: Systemic Lupus erythematosus and the reading level of patient education materials, Journal of Rheumatology 24(12): 2335-2339.
Herman, D.B., Susser, E.S., Struening, E.L. & Susser, E.S. (1997). Adverse childhood experiences: are they risk factors for adult homelessness? American Journal of Public Health 87(2): 249-255.
Hollingshead, A.B. (1949). Elmtown’s youth. New York, NY: John Wiley.
Hummer, R.A., Rogers, R.G. & Eberstein, I.W. (1998). Sociodemographic differentials in adult mortality: a review of analytic approaches, Population and Development Review 24(3): 553-578.
Hunt, W.C. (1897). Workers at gainful occupations at the federal censuses of 1870, 1880, and 1890, Bulletin of the Department of Labor 11: 415.
Koessel, S.L., Theis, M.K., Vaughan, T.L., Koepsell, T.D., Weiss, N.S., Greenberg, R.S. & Swanson, G.M. (1996). Socioeconomic status and the incidence of multiple Myeloma, Epidemiology 7(1): 4-8.
Lehman, H.C. & Witty, P.A. (1931). Further study of the social status of occupations, Journal of Educational Sociology 5: 101-112.
Miller, D.C. & Salkind, N.J. (2002). Handbook of research design and social measurement. 6th edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Nakao, K. & Treas, J. (1994). Updating occupational prestige and socioeconomic scores: how the new measures measure up, pp. 1-72, in: P. Marsden (ed.), Sociological methodology. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.
Nam, C.B. (2000). Comparison of three occupational scales. Unpublished paper. Center for the Study of Population, Florida State University.
Nam, C.B., LaRocque, J., Powers, M.G. & Holmberg, J. (1975). Occupational status scores: stability and change, pp. 570-575, in: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Social Statistics Section. Washington, DC: American Statistical Association.
Nam, C.B. & Powers, M.G. (1968). Changes in the relative status of workers in the United States, 1950-1960, Social Forces 47: 158-170.
Nam, C.B. & Powers, M.G. (1983). The socioeconomic approach to status measurement. Houston, TX: Cap and Gown Press.
Nam, C.B. & Terrie, E.W. (1988). 1980-based Nam-Powers occupational status scores. Working Paper 88-48. Tallahassee, FL: Center for the Study of Population, Florida State University.
Nietz, J.A. (1935). The Depression and the social status of occupations, Elementary School Journal 35: 454-461.
North, C.C. & Hatt, P.K. (1949). Jobs and occupations: A popular evaluation, Opinion News 9: 3-13.
Osgood, C.E. & Stegner, R. (1941). Analysis of the prestige frame of reference by a gradient technique, Journal of Applied Psychology 25: 275-290.
Padover, S.K. (1943). The complete Jefferson. New York, NY: Duell, Sloan & Pearce.
Powers, M.G. & Seltzer, W. (1998). Occupational status and mobility among undocumented immigrants by gender, International Migration Review 32(1): 21-55.
Powers, M.G., Seltzer, W. & Shi, J. (1998). Gender differences in the occupational status of undocumented immigrants in the United States: Experience before and after legalization, International Migration Review 32(4): 1015-1046.
Rossiter, W.S. (1909). A century of population growth: From the first census of the United States to the twelfth 1790-1900. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
Scoville, J.G. (1972). Manpower and occupational analysis: Concepts and measurement. Part 1. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.
Seibert, M.T., Fossett, M.A., & Baunach, D.M. (1997). Trends in male-female status inequality, 1940-1990, Social Science Research 26(1): 1-24
Siegel, P.M. (1971). Prestige in the American occupational structure. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago.
Smith, M. (1935). Proposal for making a scale of occupational status, Sociology and Social Research 20: 40-49.
Stevens, G. & Cho, J.H. (1985). Socioeconomic indexes and the new 1980 census occupational scheme, Social Science Research 14: 142-168.
Stevens, G. & Featherman, D.L. (1981). A revised socioeconomic index of occupational status, Social Science Research 10: 364-395.
Steenland, K., Halperin, W., Hu, S. & Walker, J.T. (2003). Deaths due to injuries among employed adults: the effects of socioeconomic class, Epidemiology 14(1): 74-79.
Terrie, E.W. & Nam, C.B. (1994). 1990 and 1980 Nam-Powers-Terrie occupational status scores. Working paper 94–118. Tallahassee, FL: Center for the Study of Population, Florida State University.
US Bureau of the Census. (1963). Methodology and scores of socioeconomic status. Working Paper no. 15. Washington, D.C.: US Bureau of the Census.
US Census Bureau. (2000). Design and methodology. Current Population Survey, Technical Paper 63, TP63. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau. Available from <www.census.gov/prod/2000pubs/tp63.pdf>.
US Census Bureau. (2002). Statistical abstract of the United States, 2001. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau. Available from <www.census.gov/prod/2002pub/01statab/labor.pdf>.
Volinn, E., Van Koevering, D. & Loeser, J.D. (1991). Back sprain in industry: the role of socioeconomic-factors in chronicity, Spine 16(5): 542-548.
Warner, W.L., Meeker, M. & Eels, K. (1949). Social Class in America: The Evaluation of Status. Chicago, IL: Science Research Associates.
Wilkinson, F. (1929). Social distance between occupations, Sociology and Social Research 13: 234-244.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nam, C.B., Boyd, M. Occupational Status in 2000; Over a Century of Census-Based Measurement. Population Research and Policy Review 23, 327–358 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:POPU.0000040045.51228.34
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:POPU.0000040045.51228.34