Page 132 - DSOC202_SOCIAL_STRATIFICATION_ENGLISH

Unit 7: Class

7.3 Class and Mobility : Occupations and Mobility Notes

1. Data and Methods
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) for 1981 has been used as the source of data on occupations.
The LFS collects information biennially on about 250,000 individuals throughout the UK
(although from 1984 it became an annual survey with a continuing element). In 1981, the
sampling frame was the Valuation Roll, which lists properties eligible for rating, including all
domestic and commercial property and institutions such as hospitals and colleges but not
Crown property. In Scotland the Postal Address File was the basis of the sample, and those
living in institutions are therefore excluded. Interviews were carried out during a six week
period from the beginning of June, and the survey achieved a response rate of 85.0 per cent in
1981.
Current occupation is recorded using the Key Occupations for Statistical Purposes (KOS) which
contains 546 categories at the lowest level of aggregation. This classification corresponds to
that of the OPCS Classification of Occupations (1980) used to record occupation in the 1980
Census. The fine divisions which the classification makes, together with the other information
in the LFS relating to employment status, mean that the data lend themselves to regrouping
into class schema. In addition to current occupation, the LFS records the occupation in which
the respondent was in paid employment during the week one year before the survey. This is
coded in the same was as current occupation. Occupational changes during the one year period
are not noted. The analyses presented here are based only on individuals for whom there is
occupational information for both points in time. Respondents are also asked whether they
work full or part-time. Other variables in the data set include ‘highest educational qualification’
and industry, coded using the 1980 Standard Industrial Classification.
The fact that the analyses include only those who were in work both at the time of the survey
and one year previously has important implications for the interpretation of the result. A
significant amount of mobility into less advantageous jobs is likely to be omitted. For instance,
Martin and Roberts (1984) demonstrate that women reentering the labour market after having
had a period away from paid work are disproportionately likely to move to a lower social
class, especially if they are working part-time. Prolonged periods of male or female
unemployment are also likely to result in a return to work at a lower level. For these reasons
the rates of class movement shown below, which are based only on those who are in work at
both the beginning and the end of the period, do not give a picture of occupational mobility
over the whole of the economically active population. They do, however, correctly show the
flows between classes of those in employment, the focus of the analyses in the paper.
2. An Occupational Class Schema for Men and Women
Social classes are collectivities of individuals who occupy similar locations within the social
division of labour. Hence members of a class may be expected to share similar work and
market situations. Distinct classes persist when people move only rarely between classes, that
is, when there is ‘closure’. The greater the degree of closure the more the formation of identifiable
classes is facilitated (Giddens 1980 : 107). Although local factors act to condition class formation,
such as the division of labour and the authority of relationships within the workplace, occupation
is the primary principle of differentiation in the labour market and thus an effective indicator
of class in a capitalist society.
The most commonly used class schema based on occupation, the Registrar-General’s (RG), was
devised for practical purposes such as the examination of mortality rates and does not relate
particularly well to the division of labour (Dale, Gilbert and Arber 1983). For this reason,
although a few results using the RG classification are reported below, a new schema, the ‘KOS
schema’, based upon more analytically relevant bases of categorization, has been constructed.

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