Abstract
This paper uses a variety of census and survey data to develop the first systematic time series comparing the occupational distribution of adult male Jews and white non-Jews by nativity from 1890 to 1990. A shorter time series is presented for eamings. The decennial census has never asked religion. Indirect Jewish identifiers are used for the census and survey data without direct Jewish identifiers.
The analysis shows the development of Jewish occupational attainment (relative to white non-Jews) from the primarily sales and clerical occupations of the German Jews of the late 19th century, to the operative and craft occupations of the turn-of-the-century Eastern European Jewish immigrants, to the mid-20th century concentration in sales and managerial occupations, to the late 20th century concentration of American-bom Jews in the high income professional occupations. The extent and nature of Jewish self-em ploy tnent also changed over the period, from small-scale managerial self-employment to professional self-employment. Analysis of data on the earnings of white men over this period (1909 to 1980’s) shows a consistent pattem of significantly higher earnings among Jews than among non-Jews, even when educational attainment and other demographic characteristics are the same.
The analysis demonstrates a more rapid improvement in economic status for Jews than for other white men, both within the turn-of-the-century immigrant generation (intragenerational mobility) and from fathers to sons throughout the twentieth century (Jntergenerational mobility). The inequality in tbe Jewish occupational distribution first widened and then narrowed as a result of the intragenerational and intergenerational mobility.
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Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, June 1993, the Midwest Jewish Studies Association Annual Meeting, Washington, January 1995, and the Conference on the Economics of Judaism and Jewish Observance, Bar-IIan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, December 1998. The number of data points increased in successive presentations! I appreciate comments received from Carmel U. Chiswick, Lloyd Gartner, Rela Geffen, Melvin Holli, Tikva Lecker, Evelyn Lehrer, Burton Weisbrod, and participants at the conference presentations, but I am responsible for all errors of omission or commission. I especially appreciate the research assistance of Michael Hurst, Gaston Repetto and Yin Yang.
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Chiswick, B.R. The occupational attainment and earnings of American Jewry, 1890 to 1990. Cont Jewry 20, 68–98 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02967960
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02967960