Occupational Reclassification and Changes in Distribution by Gender.

Abstract

It is well known that women are concentrated in different occupations than men . Because this concentration plays a crucial role in accounting for male-female earnings differentials, it is important to know the degree to which women have been moving into jobs that have traditionally been held by men.' The decennial censuses provide very detailed occupational data and serve as the most important benchmarks for assessing long-term changes in the distribution of the sexes by occupation . The Current Population Survey (cps), conducted monthly for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Bureau of the Census, also uses the Census occupational classification system which was developed to facilitate comparability in occupational data produced by the Federal Government agencies . The cps is particularly useful for providing information on year-to-year changes in occupational employment in the years between decennial censuses .' The extensive reclassification of occupations accompanying the 1980 census, however, complicates the analysis of changes over time in sex composition . The Census Bureau's new classification system is consistent with the 1980 Standard Occupational Classification (soc) system issued