Does Occupational Status Matter? The Case of Recruitment

The research data reported in this article were collected as part of a programme of research into management strategies in relation to the demand for labour. The research project, funded by the Employment Services Division of the Manpower Services Commission, was designed to investigate the ways in which a sample of firms in the private sector (both service and manufacturing) in the East Midlands established their demand for new and replacement labour, formulated and publicised that demand and then recruited. The research design included a detailed consideration of firms' established procedures for recruitment to four occupational categories as well as accounts of recruitment to their two most recent vacancies. It is the material relating to the ways in which firms handled recruitment to these different occupational groups and explanations of the patterns found which form the focus of discussion.