Different people do different things; why? When we look features of individuals to explain their differing individual behavior, there are a few favorites: age, gender, race, income, education, IQ, and personality-type. Some people look at location, such as zipcode or nation. But it seems to me that one’s job (i.e., occupation) is a neglected strong predictor of many interesting things. For example:
We know that the personality factors we measure predict political leanings weakly, but it seems very likely that there are other factors influencing both that we don't measure.
In addition to income, I'd bet activity level is heavily correlated with survival. One equivalently paid job where you spend a lot of time sitting in a chair vs another where you're on your feet all day (perhaps engineering science teacher vs lawyer, for example) could have a lot to do with it.
How come very few of the jobs are low risk? Looking are the ones with relative risk less than 1 none seem popular enough to make up for the number of professions with a relative risk higher than 1.
"I start my health econ class with this ‘99 study of how jobs predict death rates. Job risk-ratios range over about a factor of two, after controlling for age, gender, race, income, and education."
I'd think that controlling for income might remove part of a death rateratio that is indeed part of the job risk. If a company values its people'ssurvival at an amount which correlates with the wages it pays them,then this should affect its expenditures on safety measures for eachjob type, which can affect the death rate from on-the-job accidents.
This is probably due more to the fact that the jobs themselves attract certain similar personalities of people. I bet if you were to do studies based on personality, you would get similar results.
Nanonymous,
You could not be farther from the truth. :-)
I'm a married (with 2 kids) hotel night auditor classical liberal/libertarian.
Naturally, I would like to make a change in the job department.
@Troy Camplin: OK, I'll bite.
I think that someone with these credentials is likely to be non-married science writer/journalist leaning heavily Left.
We know that the personality factors we measure predict political leanings weakly, but it seems very likely that there are other factors influencing both that we don't measure.
I have a B.A. in recombinant gene technology, a M.A. in English, a Ph.D. in the humanities.
Anyone want to guess as to 1) my job, 2) my political affiliations, 3) my marital status?
No cheating!
In addition to income, I'd bet activity level is heavily correlated with survival. One equivalently paid job where you spend a lot of time sitting in a chair vs another where you're on your feet all day (perhaps engineering science teacher vs lawyer, for example) could have a lot to do with it.
That’s the point, JKLC–it’s a lot easier to quantify occupations than personalities.
I would like to see concurrent stats describing the strength/degree of one's choice in selecting his ultimate career.
"Everyone wanted me to be a doctor...""I chose to become a wood worker against the best wishes of my family..."
The degree to which we steer our own life dictates our health, I said.
How come very few of the jobs are low risk? Looking are the ones with relative risk less than 1 none seem popular enough to make up for the number of professions with a relative risk higher than 1.
"I start my health econ class with this ‘99 study of how jobs predict death rates. Job risk-ratios range over about a factor of two, after controlling for age, gender, race, income, and education."
I'd think that controlling for income might remove part of a death rateratio that is indeed part of the job risk. If a company values its people'ssurvival at an amount which correlates with the wages it pays them,then this should affect its expenditures on safety measures for eachjob type, which can affect the death rate from on-the-job accidents.
We know personality predicts political leanings rather weakly, too weakly in fact to explain the strong relation between politics and jobs.
That's the point, JKLC--it's a lot easier to quantify occupations than personalities.
This is probably due more to the fact that the jobs themselves attract certain similar personalities of people. I bet if you were to do studies based on personality, you would get similar results.