Occupational Restructuring, Job Displacement, and Worker Mobility

The United States has experienced substantial changes in jobs, occupations, and mobility over the past two decades. Many once common or desirable jobs have declined in prominence, status, or disappeared entirely (e.g., typists), while new, previously nonexistent jobs now employ significant numbers of workers (e.g., machine learning engineer). Sociologists Jennie Brand and Xi Song will use new data sources to better understand career trajectories and mobility chances due to recent changes in the structure of occupations. How have workers’ career trajectories and mobility chances changed because of occupational restructuring and associated job displacement? And how have shifts in the occupational composition of employment affected the expectation that children will improve upon their parents’ economic standing?