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There is extensive literature on the processes that influence the occupational choices of workers. However, less attention is devoted to examining the rate at which workers move from one occupation to another. Fortunately, the availability of panel data sets makes it possible to measure the extent that workers shift jobs within the occupational distribution over time. This study explores recent trends in occupational mobility among full-time wage and salary workers in the United States as they move from young labor market entrants to their approach to mid-career. Our objective is to determine if their occupational mobility rates changed over time, and then to compare occupational mobility rates by gender.

The results of our analysis can provide an additional perspective on the recent increase in wage disparities between high- and low-income workers, an increase that has been well documented. In terms of equity, the recent increase in earnings inequality is generally viewed with concern among policymakers. However, several studies have suggested that an increase in labor-market mobility may actually counterbalance the growth in earnings inequality. This argument asserts that flexible labor markets provide ample opportunity for upward (and downward) mobility. Consequently, if an increase in the propensity of low-wage workers moves into higher-paying occupations, lifetime earnings inequality may be reduced in spite of increases in annual cross-sectional measures of labor-market inequality.

DO WOMEN AND MEN ENCOUNTER unequal employment prospects across occupations, given their personal characteristics? Empirical evidence presented in this article indicates that gender differences in occupational distributions remained stable during the 1990s at levels comparable to those of the 1980s. The multinomial logit model of occupational attainment set forth here also detected a significant shift of women across occupational categories if their characteristics are evaluated according to the men's occupational structure. These shifts did not change significantly throughout the 1990s and are similar to comparable estimates from the late 1970s and 1980s. A more detailed examination of the occupational shifts occupational distribution predicts a movement of women from white-collar to blue-collar jobs. This is unlikely, however, especially in light of recent literature on occupational employment patterns and choice by gender. Thus, U.S. women in their thirties and forties do not appear to encounter significant levels of involuntary segregation across broad occupational categories. Although gender differences in occupational attainment persist, they apparently result from voluntary choices of men and women and from long-term changes in labor markets, such as the simultaneous growth of white-collar occupations and women's labor force participation rates.