Education and Job Attitudes among Blue-Collar Workers

This paper presents national survey evidence from the 1972-1973 Michigan Quality of Employment Survey on the relationship between education and work satisfaction among blue-collar workers. Special attention is paid to the job outlooks of manual workers with one or more years of college education (who constitute approximately one-fifth of the white, male blue-collar category). Contrary to a common expectation, but consistent with previous research on the topic, the data show that among blue-collar workers, education and job satisfaction are not significantly related. Evidence on other aspects of attitudes towards work is also presented and discussed.