IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2205.00497.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Distribution of Occupational Tasks in the United States: Implications for a Diverse and Aging Population

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Cole
  • Zachary Cowell
  • John M. Nunley
  • R. Alan Seals Jr

Abstract

We document the age-race-gender intersectionality in the distribution of occupational tasks in the United States. We also investigate how the task content of work changed from the early-2000s to the late-2010s for different age-race/ethnicity-gender groups. Using the Occupation Information Network (O*NET) and pooled cross-sectional data from the American Community Survey (ACS) we examine how the tasks that workers perform vary with age and over time. We find that White men transition to occupations high in non-routine cognitive tasks early in their careers, whereas Hispanic and Black men work mostly in physically demanding jobs over their entire working lives. Routine manual tasks increased dramatically for 55-67 year-old workers, except for Asian men and women. Policymakers will soon be challenged by financial stress on entitlement programs, reforms could have disproportionate effects on gender and racial/ethnic groups due to inequality in the distribution of occupational tasks.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Cole & Zachary Cowell & John M. Nunley & R. Alan Seals Jr, 2022. "The Distribution of Occupational Tasks in the United States: Implications for a Diverse and Aging Population," Papers 2205.00497, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2205.00497
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.00497
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Neumark & Ian Burn & Patrick Button, 2019. "Is It Harder for Older Workers to Find Jobs? New and Improved Evidence from a Field Experiment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 922-970.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2022. "Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(5), pages 1973-2016, September.
    3. Joanna N. Lahey, 2008. "Age, Women, and Hiring: An Experimental Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 43(1).
    4. David H. Autor & David Dorn, 2013. "The Growth of Low-Skill Service Jobs and the Polarization of the US Labor Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1553-1597, August.
    5. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    6. Erik Hurst & Yona Rubinstein & Kazuatsu Shimizu, 2021. "Task-Based Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 29022, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson, 2021. "On the Persistence of the China Shock," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 52(2 (Fall)), pages 381-476.
    8. David J. Deming, 2017. "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1593-1640.
    9. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2022. "Demographics and Automation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(1), pages 1-44.
    10. Daron Acemoglu & Pascual Restrepo, 2020. "Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(6), pages 2188-2244.
    11. Jessica A. Kelley-Moore & Kenneth F. Ferraro, 2004. "The Black/White Disability Gap: Persistent Inequality in Later Life?," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 59(1), pages 34-43.
    12. Christopher R Tamborini & Changhwan Kim & Deborah Carr, 2020. "Are You Saving for Retirement? Racial/Ethnic Differentials in Contributory Retirement Savings Plans," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(4), pages 837-848.
    13. Joanna N. Lahey & Douglas R. Oxley, 2021. "Discrimination at the Intersection of Age, Race, and Gender: Evidence from an Eye‐Tracking Experiment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(4), pages 1083-1119, September.
    14. Enghin Atalay & Phai Phongthiengtham & Sebastian Sotelo & Daniel Tannenbaum, 2020. "The Evolution of Work in the United States," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 1-34, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hensvik, Lena & Skans, Oskar Nordström, 2023. "The skill-specific impact of past and projected occupational decline," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Daniele Angelini, 2023. "Aging Population and Technology Adoption," Working Paper Series of the Department of Economics, University of Konstanz 2023-01, Department of Economics, University of Konstanz.
    3. Gordon H. Hanson, 2021. "Immigration and Regional Specialization in AI," NBER Working Papers 28671, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Marin, Giovanni & Vona, Francesco, 2023. "Finance and the reallocation of scientific, engineering and mathematical talent," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(5).
    5. Krenz, Astrid & Prettner, Klaus & Strulik, Holger, 2021. "Robots, reshoring, and the lot of low-skilled workers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    6. David J. Deming, 2021. "The Growing Importance of Decision-Making on the Job," NBER Working Papers 28733, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Sergio Ocampo, 2019. "A task-based theory of occupations with multidimensional heterogeneity," 2019 Meeting Papers 477, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. David Autor & Caroline Chin & Anna Salomons & Bryan Seegmiller, 2024. "New Frontiers: The Origins and Content of New Work, 1940–2018," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(3), pages 1399-1465.
    9. Consoli, Davide & Marin, Giovanni & Rentocchini, Francesco & Vona, Francesco, 2023. "Routinization, within-occupation task changes and long-run employment dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(1).
    10. Koomen, Miriam & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2022. "Occupational tasks and wage inequality in West Germany: A decomposition analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Gallipoli, Giovanni & Makridis, Christos A., 2018. "Structural transformation and the rise of information technology," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 91-110.
    12. Ljubica Nedelkoska & Shreyas Gadgin Matha & James McNerney & Andre Assumpcao & Dario Diodato & Frank Neffke, 2021. "Eight Decades of Changes in Occupational Tasks, Computerization and the Gender Pay Gap," CID Working Papers 151a, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    13. Cheng, Can & Luo, Jiayu & Zhu, Chun & Zhang, Shangfeng, 2024. "Artificial intelligence and the skill premium: A numerical analysis of theoretical models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    14. Da Xie & WeiGuo Yang, 2023. "The Skill-Task Matching Model: Mechanism, Model Structure, and Algorithm," Papers 2306.12176, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2023.
    15. Kostøl, Fredrik B. & Svarstad, Elin, 2023. "Trade Unions and the Process of Technological Change," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    16. Ebeke, Christian H. & Eklou, Kodjovi M., 2023. "Automation and the employment elasticity of fiscal policy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    17. Falck, Oliver & Heimisch-Roecker, Alexandra & Wiederhold, Simon, 2021. "Returns to ICT skills," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    18. Bachmann, Ronald & Stepanyan, Gayane, 2020. "It's a Woman's World? Occupational Structure and the Rise of Female Employment in Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224626, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    19. Qiu, Jiaping & Wan, Chi & Wang, Yan, 2024. "Labor-saving innovations and capital structure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    20. Javed, Mohsin, 2023. "Robots, Natives and Immigrants in US local labor markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2205.00497. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.