ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews briefly what appear to be the central findings of selected studies of occupational mobility. In the United States occupational mobility is frequently accompanied by geographic migration. American tradition emphasizes the optimistic view that "the grass is greener elsewhere." Both social and economic costs are involved in changing one's place of residence and one's occupation or place of employment, but this is only one side of the coin. The great mobility of the American labor force is a central element in the relatively ready adoption of social and cultural change in America. Ely Chinoy, in a review of a number of studies of occupational mobility, comments that this revised view "seems to be widely held among social scientists." Information on occupational mobility in western Europe indicates that intergenerational vertical mobility is not substantially different from that revealed by studies in the United States, a finding contrary to what many have expected.
