TPC-Journal-V5-Issue1

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 1 4 ranging between 43% and 50% of all occupations included over the five census periods. Reardon et al. (2007) reported that although employment in the Realistic area declined by 25% from 1960–2000, this area remained the largest area of employment and actually increased in real numbers from 1960–2000. As before, only 1% of employment was in the Artistic area. Finally, Reardon et al. (2007) examined income and gender by kinds of work and found that the average income profile for six kinds of work ranging from highest to lowest was IESARC in 1990 and ISEARC in 2000. The discrepancy across the six areas was very large, with the average Investigative income about twice as large as the average Conventional income. In summary, the data included in these studies (Reardon et al., 2007; Reardon et al., 2004) were unique in several ways and have special implications for counselors. First, as an independent branch of the federal government, the U.S. Census Bureau reported actual numbers of people working in different occupations based on an accounting of persons in households. Second, these data provided a retrospective look at the labor markets, and by examining them over time it was possible to view changes in the economic lives of persons in the United States. Third, the occupational titles included in the census have remained constant over the years, reinforcing the use of the occupational schema in matching persons and environments. Fourth, these studies were conducted by researchers in the counseling field rather than economists or sociologists, which helps counselors use occupational data organized by Holland codes to illustrate and explain where jobs exist in relation to their clients’ interests. For example, a client may have a strong interest in Artistic occupations, and census data may help a counselor explain the relatively small number of persons working in Artistic fields. The Present Study We examined the employment trends reported in earlier research and added a new analysis based on the 2010 census and O*NET data. Research questions included the following: 1. What were the numbers of occupational titles reported in the census from 1960–2010 relative to the six areas of work? 2. What were the numbers and percentages of occupational employment in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010 in relation to six kinds of work? 3. What were the mean incomes for six different kinds of work in 1990, 2000 and 2010? Methods Procedures and Research Tools Varied procedures have been used to collect occupational data for the decennial census over the past 6 decades. 1960, 1970, 1980 census . In the 1960 census, the sampling unit was the housing unit, or the person in the case of group housing. This method provided information about 297 detailed occupational categories. L. S. Gottfredson and Brown (1978) described the methods they used to derive Holland codes for the 1960 census data using 1970 census data as a point of reference. In the 1970 census, the sampling unit again was the housing unit, and 440 detailed occupational titles were included in these data, 143 more than in 1960. As with the 1960 census, the data included only employed persons and excluded members of the armed forces. G. D. Gottfredson, Holland, and Gottfredson (1975) analyzed data from the 1970 census involving 424 occupations, and excluded men (5.6%) and women (6.6%) not classified according to one of the detailed occupations. Information about the 1980 census was taken primarily from G. D. Gottfredson and Holland (1989) and G. D. Gottfredson (1984). The 1980 analysis was based on 503 selected occupations.