PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Occupational sorting, the process of individuals actively selecting into and being selected for different occupa-tions, has significant implications for social stratification and inequality. The psychometric view of occupational differentials in ability emphasizes the importance of intelligence for occupational sorting, as it acts as a necessary condition to enter and remain in certain professions due to their high cognitive demand. The resulting cognitive stratification of the occupational hierarchy leads to strong associations between occupational mean IQ and so-ciological measures of occupational status and pay. Past research has been criticized for lack of representa-tiveness and small sample sizes. In this study, we both confirm the psychometric view in a large representative sample and extend it to a set of nine non-cognitive traits. We show that the psychometric view holds (on a weaker level) for multiple non-cognitive traits, and using small-area estimation, we provide precise mean estimates and rankings of intelligence and non-cognitive traits for 360 occupations, including rare professions. Keywords: Social Stratification, Occupation, Non-Cognitive Traits.