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GENERATIONAL CHANGES IN RACIAL INEQUALITY IN OCCUPATIONAL ATTAINMENT, 1950–2010

A Synthetic Cohort Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2018

Franklin D. Wilson
Franklin D. Wilson*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
*
*Corresponding author: Franklin D. Wilson, William H. Sewell-Bascom Emeritus Professor of Sociology. Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 3450 Social Sciences Building, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706. E-mail: fdwilson@wisc.edu
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Abstract

This paper analyzes age and cohort changes in the occupational attainment of Blacks and Whites born in successive decades from 1910 to 1979. Occupational attainment is operationalized as “occupational returns to education” and “earnings returns to occupation.” The primary objective is to determine whether the relative occupational attainment of Blacks of the baby-boom generation and Generation X improved over that of their great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents. The results indicate that Blacks and Whites, and men and women improved their occupational attainment levels over those of previous birth cohorts. However, neither Black men of the baby-boom generation nor those of Generation X improved their occupational attainment relative to White men of the same age and born in the same decade. Moreover, on a per capita basis, Black men’s occupational status declined for the most recent birth cohorts due in large part to joblessness starting with members of the 1940 birth cohort, which increased progressively with each successive birth cohort. On the other hand, Black women seem to have improved their occupational status relative to White women, but the improvements fluctuated over the decades. These findings are discussed in relation to possible causes and limitations of this analysis.

Keywords

Racial InequalityChanges in Racial InequalityOccupational AttainmentSocioeconomic AttainmentRaceGenderEducational AttainmentUnemploymentGender Inequality
Type
State of the Discipline
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , Fall 2017 , pp. 387 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2018 

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