Occupational prestige: American stratification

The COVID19 pandemic, recession, and now unequal recovery has uncovered what stratification economists have long recognized in the disparate layering of society—growing divergence in social mobility by race, ethnicity, and gender. New research on diminished and stagnating social mobility shows that these large discrepancies began well before the pandemic and have only been exacerbated in the recovery. However, long-run structural factors and the buildup of historic inequities have so far been absent in many of the analyses of the recent pandemic recovery. This paper uses a stratification lens to examine the already present sectoral and occupational divergences. We show that the so-called K-shaped economic recovery is present in more than sectoral differences. Using the American Time Use Survey data, we show, first, the “original K” in terms of the persistent inequality in racial, ethnic, and gender compositions of occupational prestige, measured through the Nam-Powers-Boyd occupational ranking. Then, we present evidence on the unequal recoveries by sector, illustrating preexisting labor market disparities. This paper highlights the systemic forms of racial, ethnic, and gender inequities by looking at the occupational prestige rankings and showing how COVID19 has amplified existing disparities.