Updating Occupational Prestige and Socioeconomic Scores: How the New Measures Measure up

TLDR

A quarter‑century replication of 1960s occupational prestige studies enabled new prestige and socioeconomic status scales keyed to the 1980 occupational classification system. The paper aims to describe the design of the 1989 General Social Survey occupational prestige module and evaluate its data quality. The module was constructed within the 1989 General Social Survey, and substantive analyses of respondents examined the practical implications of scale differences. The new scale diverges from earlier scales in small but systematic ways. Authors: [not specified].

Abstract

A quarter century replication of occupational prestige studies from the 1960s permitted the development of new occupational prestige and socioeconomic status scales keyed to the 1980 occupational classification system. This paper describes the design of the 1989 General Social Survey module on occupational prestige and evaluates the quality of its data. The new scale is shown to diverge from earlier scales in small but systematic ways. Substantive analyses based on respondents in the 1989 survey explore the practical implications of scale differences. (authors)