The Occupational Composition of American Classes: Results from Cluster Analysis

Hierarchical clustering methods are developed to analyze the American occupational structure. Two analyses are computed, based on similarities of intergenerational mobility inflows and of residential patterns. In both analyses the farm versus nonfarm distinction is the most basic. The second level divides occupations into middle- and working-class clusters. These clusters lend support to a hypothesis of proletarianization of white-collar work; embourgeoisement, manual-nonmanual, middle-mass, and knowledge-technocracy theories are not supported. In both analyses, the majority of clericals and, in the second analysis, technicians are more similar to manual workers than to middle-class occupations. An analysis of friendship choices lends further support to the location of clericals among the working class. The results also document the promise of cluster analysis as a major analytical tool far analyzing social structures.