We propose a new approach to study the structure of occupational labor markets that relies on social network analysis techniques. Highly detailed transition matrices are constructed based on changes in individual workers' occupations over successive months of the Current Population Survey rotating panels. The resulting short-term transition matrices provide snapshots of all occupational movements in the U.S. labor market at different points in time and for different sociodemographic groups. We find a significant increase in occupational mobility and in the diversity of occupational destinations for working men over the past two decades. The occupational networks for black and Hispanic men exhibit a high overall density of ties resulting from a high probability of movement among a limited set of occupations. Upward status mobility also increased during the time period studied, although there are large differences by race and ethnicity and educational attainment. Finally, factional analysis is proposed as a novel way to explore labor market segmentation. Results reveal a highly segmented occupational network in which movement is concentrated within a limited number of occupations with markedly different levels of occupational status.

中文翻译：

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美国的职业结构：一种社会网络方法

我们提出了一种新的方法来研究依赖社会网络分析技术的职业劳动力市场的结构。高度详细的过渡矩阵是根据“当前人口调查”轮换小组连续几个月内单个工人职业的变化而构建的。由此产生的短期过渡矩阵提供了美国劳动力市场在不同时间点和不同社会人口群体的所有职业变动的快照。我们发现在过去的二十年中，职业流动性和在职男性的职业目的地的多样性显着增加。黑人和西班牙裔男子的职业网络显示出很高的联系密度，这是由于在一组有限的职业中活动的可能性很高。尽管在种族，族裔和受教育程度方面存在很大差异，但在所研究的时期内，上层身份的流动性也有所增加。最后，提出了派系分析作为探索劳动力市场细分的一种新方法。结果揭示了一个高度细分的职业网络，其中，运动集中在有限数量的职业中，职业状态明显不同。