Occupational changes during the 20th century

Monthly Labor Review

Volumn 129, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 35-57

  Wyatt, Ian D ^a   Hecker, Daniel E ^a  

^a BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS   (United States)

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EID: 33645657621     PISSN: 00981818     EISSN: 00981818     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. See the November 2005 Review.
2. In the Bureau's biennial projections, an industry-occupation matrix is used to analyze occupations as a percentage of total employment in each industry. (See Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2004-05, Bulletin 2570 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2004), pp. 663-64;
3. and Occupational Projections and Training Data, 2004-05, Bulletin 2572 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2004), pp. 42-43; on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/emp.)
4. Those with a numeric decline in employment have a staffing pattern decline of 70 percent or more.
5. On the Internet at http://www.ipums.org/.
6. (See Steven Ruggles, Matthew Sobek, Trent Alexander, Catherine A. Fitch, Ronald Goeken, Patricia Kelly Hall, Miriam King, and Chad Ronnander, Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 3.0 (Minneapolis, Minnesota Population Center, 2004.)) IPUMS provides Census Bureau microdata dating back to 1850. The size of the microdata sample is either 1 percent or 5 percent, depending upon the year.
7. In addition, the original Census Bureau data have both sampling and nonsampling errors.
8. An occupation category consists of a homogeneous group of occupation tides. (See, Alphabetical index of occupations and industries, 1950 Census of Population, rev. ed. (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1950), p. vi.)
9. The 1950 census did include three subgroups: engineers, natural scientists, and mechanics and repairers.
10. See Standard Occupational Classification Manual, 2000 (Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, 2000).
11. Data in chart 1 on private household workers are for 1990, rather than 2000. In the 2000 census, the employment of private household workers cannot be determined, because those workers are included with workers having similar duties in cleaning, childcare, food preparation, or other service worker occupations. Therefore, the change in private household workers' employment over the 90-year period cannot be calculated.
12. Of course, these shifts began well before 1910. For example, employment in the agricultural sector, roughly equivalent to farm occupation employment, declined from 64.5 percent in 1850 to 32.1 percent in 1910. Over the same period, employment in the goods-producing sector increased from 17.7 percent to 32.1 percent, and that in the service-producing sector increased from 17.8 percent to 35.9 percent. (See Michael Urquhart, "The employment shift to services: where did it come from?" Monthly Labor Review, April 1984, pp. 15-22, especially table 1, p. 16.)
13. That is, their growth appears as a straight line in the charts that are presented. Obviously, growth rates over the period need not be steady.
14. The group included soc numbers 15-29-0000 in 2000. (See Standard Occupational Classification Manual, 2000, p. xvi.) Accountants and auditors, however, a category classified as a business and financial operations occupation in the 2000 soc, also is discussed here because it was classified as a professional, technical, and kindred occupation in 1950.
15. See Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century (Washington, DC, National Academy of Engineering, 2006), on the Internet at http://www.greatachievements.org/.
16. Data are from the 1960-90 censuses and the 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS). Computer programmers; computer systems analysts; and computer specialists, not elsewhere classified (n.e.c.), first appeared as titles of occupations in the 1960 census, within professional, technical, and kindred workers, n.e.c., and as Bureau of the Census occupations (with employment data) in 1970. Special tabulations provide employment data for 1960. (See Constance Bogh DiCesare, "Changes in the occupational structure of U.S. jobs," Monthly Labor Review, March 1975, pp. 24-34, especially Table 2, p. 26;
17. and John A. Priebe, Joan Heinkel, and Stanley Greene, 1970 Occupation and Industry Classification Systems in Terms of Their 1960 Occupation and Industry Elements, Technical Paper 26 (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1972), especially table 1, p. 19.)
18. Data on accountants for the 1910-40 period are from Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, part 1 (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1975). Accountants and auditors are classified with business and financial operations occupations in 2000.
19. Greatest Engineering Achievements.
20. William C. Goodman, "The software and engineering industries: threatened by technological change?" Monthly Labor Review,August 1996, pp. 37-45.
21. Healthcare workers, excluding attendants and practical nurses, increased 4.6 times, from 0.8 percent to 4.4 percent.
22. In the latter part of the century, home healthcare provided by healthcare workers also grew rapidly.
23. David E. Kyvig, Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940 (Chicago, Ivan R. Dee, 2002).
24. See Anne Kahl and Donald Clark, "Employment in health services: long term trends and projections," Monthly Labor Review, August 1986, pp. 17-36;
25. and David Hiles, "Health services: the real jobs machine," Monthly Labor Review, November 1992, pp. 3-16.
26. Theodore Caplow, Louis Hicks, and Ben J. Wattenberg, The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900-2000 (Washington, DC, AEI Press, 2001).
27. Personal interview with Dale C. Smith, Ph. D., chairman, Department of Medical History, U.S. University of the Health Services, Dec. 8, 2004.
28. Caplow, Hicks, and Wallenberg, The First Measured Century.
29. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2003 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003). Data are based on the CPS.
30. At 9.1 percent, physicians and surgeons were the second-largest professional and technical occupation in 1910, but by 2000 they had dropped to 2.4 percent of all professional workers. Dentists and pharmacists remained a fairly steady proportion of total employment throughout the century.
31. The higher 1940 ratio may reflect the smaller-than-average impact of the Great Depression on the employment levels of lawyers. In 1940, the overall unemployment rate was 14.6 percent (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1961 (U.S. Census Bureau, 1961).)
32. Richard L. Abel, American Lawyers (New York, Oxford University Press, 1989); see especially pp. 123-26.
33. Federal laws include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
34. In the census, teachers, n.e.c. The only other category of teachers is college presidents, professors, and instructors. Teachers, n.e.c., made up by far the largest professional occupation in 1910, at 36.4 percent of all professional workers. By 2000, it was still the largest, but was only 16.4 percent of professional workers.
35. Thomas D. Snyder, ed., 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait (Washington, DC, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993);
36. see also IES/NCES, "Youth Indicators, 2005: Trends in the Well-being of American Youth, Indicator 11: Pupil/Teacher Ratios and Expenditures per Student" table 11, on the Internet at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/ youthindicators/.asp? PubPageNumber=11&ShowTablePage=TablesHTML/11.asp.
37. United States Summary: Population and Housing Unit Counts (U.S. Census Bureau, August 1993), table 2, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov/ population/censusdata/table-2.pdf.
38. National and State Population Estimates: Annual Population Estimates 2000-2005 (U.S. Census Bureau, Dec. 21, 2005), on the Internet at http://www.census.gov/popest/states/NST-ann-est.html.
39. The percent change here is based on data for 5- to 19- year-olds, prorated for 5- to 18-year-olds.
40. Digest of Education Statistics Tables and Figures (National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2001), table 8, on the Internet at http://nces.ed.gov/ programs/digest/d01/dt008.asp. Between 1910 and 1940, the proportion of people aged 25 years and older with a high school diploma increased from 13.5 percent to 24.5 percent.
41. Clergy declined from 7.3 percent to 1.3 percent of professionals over the period.
42. The 2000 data include some workers classified as private household workers in earlier years.
43. Health service workers grew 4 times as a percent of total employment, from 0.39 percent to 1.95 percent. Their numbers grew from 97,000 to 3,513,000. Practical nurses are classified with service workers in the 1950 census, but with healthcare practitioners and technical occupations in the SOC. Data for service workers, n.e.c., are not included in the components.
44. Gardeners, except farm, and groundskeepers are included within laborers, just as they are in the 1950 census classification.
45. Nationwide prohibition began on January 16, 1920, with the 18th amendment to the Constitution, but State and local laws had already significantly affected the drinking of alcoholic beverages. The amendment was repealed in 1934. (See Kyvig, Daily Life in the United States, pp. 3, 24, and 25.)
46. John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle,Fast food: roadside restaurants in the automobile age (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).
47. http://www.fns.usda.gov/cga/PressReleases/1999/PR-0060.htm.
48. Caplow, Hicks, and Wattenberg, The First Measured Century, pp. 214-17.
49. In the 2000 SOC, cashiers are classified as sales workers.
50. See Teresa L. Morisi, "Commercial banking transformed by computer technology," Monthly Labor Review, August 1996, pp. 30-36;
51. and Michael J. Pilot, "Occupational Outlook Handbook: a review of 50 years of change," Monthly Labor Review, May 1999, pp. 8-26.
52. Data on attendants in physicians' and dentists' offices also are included in data on healthcare workers.
53. John Priebe, Changes between the 1950 and 1960 Occupational and Industry Classifications (U.S. Bureau of the Census, July 1969). DiCesare, "Occupational structure of U.S. jobs," cautions that part of the 1960-70 decline could be attributed to definitional changes.
54. See note 44.
55. See, for example, note 27.
56. Data for these three categories do not include foremen, n.e.c. The Census Bureau aggregated data for all foremen, so there was no way to allocate their employment to each of the categories. Craftsmen and kindred workers, n.e.c., also were not allocated. The occupation of mechanics and repairers is a 1950 census group, roughly equivalent to installation, maintenance, and repair occupations in the 2000 SOC.
57. This group corresponds to motor vehicle operators in the 2000 SOC.
58. Fourteenth Census of the United States taken in the year 1920, Volume IV, Population 1920, Occupations (U.S. Bureau of the Census), p. 16
59. Ibid., p. 39.
60. See Harold F. Williamson, The Growth of the. American Economy (New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1944), especially pp. 499-519.
61. See Kyvig, Daily Life in the United States, pp. 35-37, for a discussion of Henry Ford's role in developing mass production.
62. See Standard Occupational Classification Manual, 2000.
63. The First Measured Century, pp. 36-37, 98-99. The greater labor force participation rate of women in the latter part of the century did not appear to affect the decline in the number and proportion of private household service workers.
64. Between 1910 and 1950, the number of women employed in clerical occupations increased 5.5 times (by 3.8 million), while male clerical workers increased 1.1 times. (See Historical Statistics of the United States, pp. 139, 140).
65. Employment of farmers declined from 15.6 percent of all employment to 0.6 percent, from a level of 6,048,000 to 775,000. Employment of farm laborers declined from 17.4 percent to 0.6 percent,or, numerically, from 6,761,000 to 823,000.
66. See Fourteenth Census, pp. 12, 13, 22-24. The 1910 census was conducted on April 15. The Fourteenth Census also discusses the possible overcount in the 1910 census of children aged 10-15 years reported as farm laborers. In the early years of the 20th century, a large proportion of farm laborers were unpaid family workers.
67. See Track Records: United States Crop Production (U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, April 2003), on the Internet at http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/data-sets/crops/96120/ track03c.htm#all;
68. and 2002 Census of Agriculture - State Data: New York (U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, no date), table 33, on the Internet at http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/census02/ volume1/ny/st36_1_033_033.pdf.
69. Daniel E. Hecker, "Occupational employment projections to 2014," Monthly Labor Review, November 2005, pp. 70-101.