CHAPTER IV

THE “VARIABLE” OCCUPATIONS FOR MEN

The "variable" occupations in 1920. By a "variable" occupation, we mean an occupation which does not offer employment to at least one worker per ten thousand population in all the communities that we are considering. For the purposes of the present study, we are interested in two aspects of the "variable" occupations for men: first, what these

TABLE VII. THE RELATIVE VARIABILITY COEFFICIENTS OF THE "VARIABLE" OCCUPATIONS FOR MEN

occupations are; second, what the relative variabilities in employment are. Both of these facts are supplied in Table VII. The occupations are listed in the descending order of the proportion employed in the median city. The reports of the number of workers per ten thousand population are not given for the lowest and highest city, but only for the P10, median, and P90 cities. The last column contains the relative "variability" coefficients. The occupations in which the proportion of workers per ten thousand population in the median city was zero are not given. Our chief interest in the relative variabilities of the “variable” occupations is to make a comparison in all the occupations for men. As we look down the last column in Table VII, we notice at once that none

of the coefficients are below one, and one-half of them are over two. Such occupations as "extractors of minerals," "boatmen," and "captains" show a very high relative variability, while such occupations as "plasterers," "telegraph operators," "motormen," and "telegraph and telephone linemen" have a coefficient falling between one and two. A knowledge of these coefficients of variability enables us to interpret more accurately the coefficients that we obtained for the "constant" and "less constant" occupations. An occupation that has a coefficient of variation of one or less does not vary greatly, when compared with other occupations, in the rate of employment from community to community. When we considered the "constant" occupations in Chapter II, we learned that all but two of them had coefficients of one or less. Thus, all but two of them are "constant," not only in the sense in which we are using the term in this study (i.e., employing ten or more workers per ten thousand inhabitants in all the communities studied), but also in the sense that the proportion of workers per ten thousand population does not vary greatly from one community to another.

CHAPTER V

THE "CONSTANT" OCCUPATIONS FOR WOMEN

The "constant" occupations in 1920. The occupations that offer employment to at least ten women per ten thousand inhabitants in the 218 cities of the United States having a population between twenty-five thousand and one hundred thousand in 1920 are given in Table VIII. The procedure of listing the occupations in the descending order of the proportion in the median city is followed. Inspection of Table VIII shows that there were six "constant" occupations for women in 1920.

Comparison with Ayres' "constant" occupations of 1900. Ayres' "constant" occupations for women are given in Table IX. When making the comparison, we must bear in mind the two limitations that we pointed out in Chapter II. The first limitation arises out of the changes in the occupational classification which the Census Bureau made in 1910. In this change, the composition of some of the occupational groups was altered to such an extent that comparison is not possible. The second limitation is that Ayres studied cities having a population of fifty thousand and over, while the present study was made of cities having twenty-five thousand to one hundred thousand population.

A detailed study of Tables VIII and IX gives the following results: 1. There seems to have been a decrease in the proportion of women employed as "servants and waiters," but there has also been some concentration in certain cities.

2. There has been no significant change in the proportion of women employed as "saleswomen."

3. The occupations of "dressmakers," "teachers," "laundresses," "nurses," and "housekeepers" appeared as "constant" occupations in 1900, but not in 1920. Of these the occupations of "teachers" and "nurses" differed in composition in 1920 from that of 1900 to such an extent that comparison is not possible. The other three, "dressmakers," "laundresses," and "housekeepers," decreased in the proportion employed to such an extent that they appear as "less constant" in the present study, as we shall see in the next chapter.

4. The occupations of "stenographers" and "accountants" increased in the proportion employed to such an extent that they rose from "less constant" in 1900 to "constant" in 1920.

Reasons for the differences. It is impossible to do more here than