Education and Occupational Mobility a Regression Analysis

Regression analysis of occupational mobility is made feasible by recent work providing socioecomonic status scores for detailed occupations. Data from the Chicago portion of the 1951 Six-City Survey of Labor Mobility reveal correlations of about .3 between respondents' occupational scores and those of their fathers, while respondents' educational attainment has a somewhat greater influence, as indicated by correlations of .4 or .5. Sons of farmers and non-whites were handicapped by comparison with respondents of non-farm origin and whites. Deposite rising levels of educational attainment accompanied by decreasing dispersion of number of school years completed, evident in intecohort comparisons, education was no less important as a determinant of occupational status in 1950 than in 1940.