Trends in Occupational Differentiation in the United States by Race/Ethnicity, Sex, and Region, 1980-2000

Omer R. Galle, University of Texas at Austin
George J. Lara, University of Texas at Austin

Using United States Census PUMS for 1980, 1990, and 2000, we utilize three measures that have been used to assess differentiation and/or inequality among occupational categories: the index of dissimilarity, the index of net difference, and the redistribution index. We examine occupational differentiation between men and women, and various racial and ethnic categories as well, including non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics, and Asians. The rapid growth of Hispanic and Asian populations and their differential regional impacts is noted and discussed. The continuing “decline” of the dominance of white male “occupational status superiority” is increasingly evident from these data. Also, the relationships between the rapid growth of both the Asian and Hispanic populations in the various regional labor forces suggests rather different trajectories for these two groups within the labor force dynamic. The linkages to interregional migration, as described by Frey and others, is discussed in this context.