In recent decades, many scholars have accentuated the role of occupations in social stratification and class analysis. Within occupations, workers compete to improve their labour positioning over time and in the process, create unequal outcomes. Advancement to better positions or improved wages can be dependent on many individual factors such as tenure, skills, experience, and effort. Yet, occupations also allow workers to create relative advantage by closing off opportunities to others or seeking otherwise meaningful distinction. This article aims to explain how the occupational context shapes how those within skilled occupations construct the means of relative labour market advantage. It is based on a wider UK case study of laboratory scientists, software engineers, and financial analysts. It shows that within each occupation, there are distinct forms of creating advantage depending on the nature of the occupation such as the educational composition of the incumbents, the situ of skill development, and the level of educational congestion within the occupation.

近几十年来，许多学者强调了职业在社会分层和阶级分析中的作用。在职业中，工人会随着时间的流逝而竞争，以改善其劳工定位，并在此过程中产生不平等的结果。晋升到更好的职位或提高工资可能取决于许多个人因素，例如任期，技能，经验和努力。但是，职业还允许工人通过与他人隔离机会或寻求其他有意义的区别来创造相对优势。本文旨在解释职业背景如何塑造熟练职业中的人如何构建相对劳动力市场优势的手段。它基于对实验室科学家，软件工程师和财务分析师进行的更广泛的英国案例研究。它表明在每个职业中，