Many studies show that labor market uncertainties are important predictors of the postponement of parenthood. While most existing studies investigate the consequences of the deterioration of employment conditions in absolute terms, in this paper I test the hypothesis that relative changes in occupational conditions affect childbearing choices. In particular, building on the Easterlin Hypothesis of resources and aspirations I investigate how intergenerational mobility among American men and women during the Great Recession affected their chances of becoming parents. Using respondents’ labor market trajectories from the PSID 2003–2017 data, I show that when both men and women hold an occupational position as prestigious as that held by their parents when they were growing up, they are more likely to have a first child than when they hold a downward-mobile job. However, men and women differ in how this process is moderated by aggregate labor market conditions.

许多研究表明，劳动力市场的不确定性是推迟生育的重要预测因素。虽然大多数现有研究从绝对意义上调查了就业条件恶化的后果，但在本文中，我检验了相对的假设职业条件的变化影响生育选择。特别是，在伊斯特林资源和愿望假说的基础上，我调查了大萧条期间美国男女的代际流动性如何影响他们成为父母的机会。使用 PSID 2003-2017 数据中受访者的劳动力市场轨迹，我表明，当男性和女性都担任与父母在成长过程中所担任的一样有声望的职业职位时，他们生第一个孩子的可能性比当他们从事向下流动的工作时。然而，男性和女性在总体劳动力市场条件如何调节这一过程方面存在差异。