Occupational Status

From The Encyclopedia of Mormonism

See this page in the original 1992 publication.

Author: Dyer, William G.

Occupational and employment data collected in the United States, Canada, Britain, Japan, and Mexico from 1980 to 1983 indicate that members of the Church differ in some respects from the general populations in which they live, but are generally similar.

In the United States, LDS men tend to be about 7 percent more likely than the rest of the population to be in the labor force. LDS women have labor-force participation rates almost identical to U.S. women generally, but LDS women are about 4 percent more likely to work part-time rather than full-time. In single-parent families, LDS women are some 16 percent more likely to be employed than other single mothers. LDS mothers with children under six years of age are 9 percent less likely to be in the labor force than other U.S. mothers of preschoolers.

Among LDS men and women who are employed, occupational distributions are very similar to the United States generally. LDS men are slightly more likely to be professionals and a little less likely to be machine or equipment operators, but in all other occupational categories the percentages tend to be virtually the same.

In Canada the occupational and employment figures tend to be very similar to the United States. Canadian LDS men are 7 percent more likely to have employment than the general population, and about half of the LDS women are employed and 9 percent more likely than others to work part-time. The occupational breakdowns in Canada for LDS men and women tend to follow the national patterns within a few percentage points.

Church survey data from Britain, Mexico, and Japan for the years 1981-1983 show that British LDS men had 87 percent participation in the labor force, the highest of the countries examined. The employment rate for LDS men in Mexico was 67 percent; in Japan, 77 percent; and in the United States, 85 percent. Japanese LDS women active in the Church were generally in the labor force at a slightly higher rate (5 percent higher) than other women in Japan.

When Church populations are compared, greater concentrations of white-collar workers are usually found in areas where members are mainly urban. Their proportion in specific white-collar categories varies somewhat in each country. In 1981-1983, LDS men were found more in managerial, administrative, and production positions in the five countries that were examined. Men and women were in professions in about the same proportion in all countries except Mexico, where greater numbers of women are in the professions (especially teaching), while LDS women were overrepresented in clerical, sales, and service occupations. WILLIAM G. DYER

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