Documentation: Census 1960 (US, County & State)
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Publisher: U.S. Census Bureau
Document: Occupation by Earnings and Education (Volume II, Part VII - Subject Reports)
citation:
U.S. Bureau of the Census. U.S. Census of Population: 1960. Subject Reports, Occupation by Earnings and Education. Final Report PC(2)-7B. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1963.
Occupation by Earnings and Education (Volume II, Part VII - Subject Reports)
Definitions and Explanations
Some of the definitions used in 1960 differ from those used in 1950. These changes were made after consultation with users of census data in order to improve the statistics, even though it was recognized that comparability would be affected. The Definitions and Explanations should be interpreted in the context of the 1960 Censuses, in which data were collected by a combination of self-enumeration, direct interview, and observation by the enumerator.

The definitions below are consistent with the instructions given to the enumerator. As in all surveys, there were some failures to execute the instructions exactly. Through the forms distributed to households, the respondents were given explanations of some of the questions more uniformly than would have been given in direct interviews. Nevertheless, it was not feasible to give the full instructions to the respondents, and some erroneous replies have undoubtedly gone undetected.

More complete discussions of the definitions of population items are given in 1960 Census of Population, Volume I, Characteristics of the Population, Part 1, United States Summary, and in each of the State parts.
Experienced Civilian Labor Force
The Experienced Civilian Labor Force consists of employed persons and experienced unemployed persons, as defined below.
Employed
Employed, persons comprise all civilians ll+ years old and over who were either (a) "at work"- those who did any work for pay or profit, or worked without pay for 15 hours or more on a family farm or in a family business; or (b) were "with a job but not at work"-those who did not work and were not looking for work but had a job or business from which they were temporarily absent because of bad weather, industrial dispute, vacation, illness, or other personal reasons.
Experienced unemployed
This category comprises all persons 14 years old and over with previous work experience who are not "at work" but looking for work. A person is considered as looking for work not only if he actually tries to find work but also if he had made such efforts recently (i.e., within the past 60 days) and was awaiting the results of these efforts. Persons waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off or furloughed were also counted as experienced unemployed.
Occupation
The occupation information collected in the 1960 Census was derived from answers to the question, "What kind of work was he doing?" Information on occupation was collected for persons who have worked at some time since 1950. For an employed person, the information referred to the job he held during the reference week. If he was employed at two or more jobs, the job at which he worked the greatest number of hours during the reference week was reported. For an experienced unemployed person, the information referred to the last job that he had held since 1950.
Classification system
The occupational classification system developed for the 1960 Census of Population consists of items, 297 of which are specific occupation categories and the remainder, are sub-groupings (mainly on the basis of industry) of 13 of the occupation categories. The composition of the 297 specific categories is shown in the publication, U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1960 Census of Population, Classified Index of Occupations and Industries, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1960. Occupation data are presented in this report for major occupation groups and for selected occupations. A listing of the occupations for which data are shown is given below:

Professional, Technical, and Kindred Workers
Accountants and auditors
Artists and art teachers
Clergymen
College presidents and deans
College professors and instructors
Dentists
Designers and draftsmen
Editors and reporters
Engineers, technical; Includes chemical, industrial, metallurgical and metallurgists, and mining, not shown separately.
Aeronautical
Civil
Electrical
Mechanical
Sales
Lawyers and judges
Musicians and music teachers
Natural scientists: Includes miscellaneous natural scientists, not shown separately.
Agricultural scientists
Biological scientists
Chemists
Geologists and geophysicists
Mathematicians
Physicists
Physicians and surgeons
Social scientists: Includes miscellaneous social scientist not shown separately.
Economists
Psychologists
Statisticians and actuaries
Teachers: Includes teachers (n.e.c.), not shown separately
Elementary schools
Secondary schools
Technicians: Includes technicians (n.e.c.), not shown separately
Medical and dental
Electrical and electronic
Other engineering and physical sciences

All other professional, technical, and kindred workers: eludes actors; airplane pilots and navigators; architects; athletes; authors; chiropractors; dancers and dancing teachers; dietitians and nutritionists; entertainers; farm and home management advisors; foresters and conservationists; funeral directors and embalmers; librarians; nurses (professional and students); optometrists; osteopaths; personnel and labor relations workers; pharmacists; photographers; public relations men and publicity writers; radio operators; recreation and group workers; religious workers; social and welfare writers, except group; sports instructors and officials; surveyors; therapists and healers; and veterinarians.

Farmers and Farm Managers

Includes owner operators, tenant fanners, and share croppers.

Managers, Officials, and Proprietors, Except Farm

Buyers and department heads, store
Inspectors, public administration
Officials and administrators (n.e.c,), public administration
Other specified managers, officials, and proprietors, except farm: Includes buyers and shippers (farm products); railroad conductors; credit men; store floormen and floor managers; building managers and superintendents; ship officers, pilots, pursers, and engineers; lodge, society, and union officials; postmasters; and purchasing agents and buyers.
Managers, officials, and proprietors (n.e.c.)

Clerical and Kindred Workers

Bank tellers
Bookkeepers
Mail carriers
Office machine operators
Postal clerks
Shipping and receiving clerks

All other clerical and kindred workers: Includes agents; library attendants and assistants; physician's and dentist's office attendants; baggagemen; cashiers; collectors; dispatchers and starters of vehicles; express messengers and railway mail clerks; file clerks; insurance adjusters, examiners, and investigators; messengers and office boys; payroll and timekeeping clerks; receptionists; secretaries; stenographers; stock clerks and storekeepers; telegraph messenger!; telegraph operators; telephone operators; ticket, station, and express agents; and typists.

Sales Workers

Insurance agents, brokers, and underwriters
Real estate agents and brokers
Other specified sales workers: Includes advertising agents and salesmen; auctioneers; demonstrators; hucksters and peddler, newsboys; and stock and bond salesmen.
Salesmen and sales clerks (n.e.c.)

Craftsmen, Foremen, and Kindred Workers

Brickmasons, stonemasons, and tile setters
Carpenters
Cement and concrete finishers

Compositors and Typesetters Electricians Foremen (n.e.c.)

Linemen and servicemen, telegraph, telephone, and power

Locomotive Engineers

Machinists
Mechanics and Repairmen: Includes repairers of air conditioning, heating, and refrigeration equipment; office machines; and railroad and railroad car shops; not shown separately.
Airplane
Automobile
Radio and television
Painters, construction and maintenance
Plasterers
Plumbers and pipe fitters
Toolmakers, and die makers and setters

Other construction craftsmen: Includes excavating, grading, and road machinery operators; paperhangers; roofers and slaters; and structural metal workers.

Other metal craftsmen: Includes blacksmiths; boilermakers; forgemen and hammermen; heat treaters, annealers, and temperers; job setters; millwrights; molders; pattern and model nakers (except paper); rollers and roll hands; and tinsmiths, coppersmiths, and sheet metal workers.

Other printing craftsmen: Includes bookbinders; electrotypers and stereotypers; engravers; photoengravers; lithographers; and pressmen and plate printers.
All other craftsmen, foremen, and kindred workers: Includes bakers; cabinetmakers; cranemen, derrickmen, and hoistmen; decorators and window dressers; furriers; glaziers; inspectors; jewelers, watchmakers, goldsmiths, and silversmiths; locomotive firemen; loom fixers; millers; motion picture projectionists; opticians, and lens grinders and polishers; piano and organ tuners and repairmen; shoemakers and repairers (except in factories); stationary engineers; stone cutters and stone carvers; tailors; upholsterers; and former members of the Armed Forces.

Operatives and Kindred Workers

Bus drivers
Mine operatives and laborers (n.e.c.)
Truck and tractor drivers
Other specified operatives and kindred workers: Includes apprentices; asbestos and insulation workers; assemblers; auto service and parking attendants; blasters and powdermen; boatmen, canalmen, and lock keepers; railroad brakemen; surveying chainmen, rodmen, and axmen; checkers, examiners, and inspectors in manufacturing; bus and street railway conductors; de- liverymen and routemen; dressmakers and seamstresses (except In factories); dyers; metal filers, grinders, and polishers; fruit, nut, and vegetable graders and packers (except in factories); furnacemen, smeltermen, and pourers; graders and sorters in manufacturing; metal heaters; textile knitters, loopers, and toppers; laundry and dry cleaning operatives; meat cutters (except slaughter and packing houses); milliners; motormen; oilers and greasers (except auto); packers and wrappers; painters (except construction and maintenance); photographic process workers; power station operators; sailors and deck hands; sawyers; sewers and stitchers in manufacturing; textile spinners; stationary firemen; railroad switchmen; taxicab drivers and chauffeurs; textile weavers; and welders and flame cutters.
Operatives and kindred workers (n.e.c.)

Service Workers, Including Private Household Barbers

Protective service workers: Includes guards, watchmen, and doorkeepers; marshals and constables; sheriffs and bailiffs; and bridge tenders; not shown separately. Firemen, fire protection Policemen and detectives
other service workers, including private household: Includes baby sitters; housekeepers; laundresses in private households; attendants; bartenders; boarding and lodging housekeepers; bootblacks; chambermaids and maids; charwomen and cleaners; cooks; counter and fountain workers; elevator operators; hairdressers and cosmetologists; stewards; janitors and sextons; kitchen workers; midwives; porters; practical nurses; ushers; and waiters.

Farm Laborers and Foremen

Farm laborers, wage workers
All other farm laborers and foremen: Includes farm foremen; unpaid family farm laborers; and self-employed farm service laborers.

Laborers, Except Farm and Mine

Includes carpenters' helpers; fishermen and oystermen; garage laborers; car washers and greasers; gardeners; longshoremen and stevedores; lumbermen, raftsmen, and wood choppers; teamsters; truck drivers' helpers; and warehousemen.

Occupation Not Reported

Note: The abbreviation "n.e.c." used in the tables means "not elsewhere classified."

Relationship to DOT Classification
The occupational classification used in the 1960 Census is generally comparable with the system used in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT).1 The two systems, however, are designed to meet different needs and to be used under different circumstances. The DOT system is much more detailed than that of the Bureau of the Census, and it also calls for many types of distinctions which cannot be made from census information.

Footnote:
1See U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Employment Security, Dictionary of Occupational Titles, Second Edition, Vols. I and II, 1949, Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D.C.

Earnings In 1959
The data on earnings were obtained by summing the amounts reported separately from answers to the following questions. (1) "How much did this person earn in 1959 in wages, salary, commissions, or tips from all jobs?" and (2) "How much did he earn in 1959 in profits or fees from working in his own business, professional practice, partnership, or farm?"

Information on earnings for the calendar year was requested from persons 14 years old and over who worked at any time in 1959. The figures represent the amount of income received before deductions for personal income taxes, Social Security, bond purchases, union dues, etc. Information on money Income received from other sources, such as net income (or loss) from rents or receipts from roomers or boarders, royalties, interest, dividends, etc., was also collected in the 1960 Census but not Included In the statistics shown in this report.

Receipts from the following sources were not considered as Income: Money received from the sale of property, unless the recipient was engaged In the business of selling such property; the value of income "in kind," such as free living quarters or food produced and consumed in the home; withdrawals of bank deposits; money borrowed; tax refunds; gifts and lump-sum inheritances or insurance benefits.
Wage or salary income
This is defined as total money earnings received for work performed as an employee. It includes wages, salary, pay from Armed Forces, commissions, tips, piece-rate payments, and cash bonuses earned.
Self-employment income
This is defined as net money income (gross receipts minus operating expenses) from a business, farm, or professional enterprise in which the person was engaged on his own account. Gross receipts include the value of all goods sold and services rendered. Expenses include the costs of goods purchased, rant, heat, light, power, depreciation charges, wages and salaries paid, business taxes, etc.
Median and Mean Earnings
The median earnings is the amount which divides the distribution into two equal groups, one having earnings above the median, and the other having earnings below the median.

The mean earnings is the amount obtained by dividing the aggregate earnings of a group by the number of earnings recipients in that group. In the derivation of aggregate amounts, the number of males in each earnings interval was multiplied by an estimated mean earnings. For earnings intervals below $7,000, the midpoint of each class interval was used; $8,200 was used for the interval $7,000 to $9,999; $12,000 for the interval $10,000 to $14,999; and $19,000 for the interval $15,000 to $24,999. For the $25,000 and over interval, the interpolation was from a Pareto Curve fitted to the data for the upper income range.
Although the number of males shown in each class interval was rounded to the nearest thousand, the median and mean earnings shown in the tables have been computed from the unrounded distributions.
Limitations of the Data
The schedule entries for earnings are frequently based not on records but on memory, and this factor probably produces underestimates, because the tendency is to forget minor or irregular sources of income. Other errors of reporting are due to misunderstanding of the income questions or to misrepresentation.

A possible source of understatement in the earnings figures was the failure, on occasion, to obtain from the respondent a report on both wage or salary income and self-employment income. For these cases of nonresponse, the assumption was made in the Editing process that no income from self-employment was received by a person who reported the receipt of wage or salary income but failed to report on the receipt of self-employment income. Conversely, it was assumed that no wage or salary income was received by a person who reported the receipt of self-employment income but failed to report on the receipt of wage or salary income. Where no earnings information was reported for a person 14 years old and over who worked in 1959, a more elaborate Editing procedure was used. The General nature of this procedure is described below in the section on "Collection and processing of data."

The earnings data in this report cover money earnings only. The fact that many farm workers receive part of their income in the form of rent-free housing and of goods produced and consumed on the farm rather than in money should be taken into consideration in comparing the figures for farm and nonfarm occupations.
Comparability
1950 Census
In 1950, information on wage or salary and self-employment income similar to that requested in 1960 was obtained from a 20-percent sample of persons 14 years old and over, but no tabulations relating to total earnings were made.
Current Population Survey
The earnings statistics shown in this report are not directly comparable with those shown from the March 1960 CPS. In the first place, the earnings figures shown here are for persons who were in the Experienced Civilian Labor Force in April 1960 whereas the earnings figures shown from the March 1960 CPS are for all persons who aid any civilian work during 1959, regardless of their labor force status in March 1960. Secondly, for an employed person, the occupation data from the 1960 Census refer to the job held during the reference week and, for an experienced unemployed person, the information refers to the last job held. The data on occupation by earnings from the March 1960 CPS, on the other hand, refer to the civilian job held longest during the year 1959.
Income tax data
For several reasons, the earnings data shown in this report are not directly comparable with those which may be obtained from statistical summaries of income tax returns. Income, as defines for tax purposes, differs somewhat from the concept used by the Bureau of the Census. Moreover, the coverage of income tax statistics is less inclusive because of the exemptions of persons receiving less than $600. Furthermore, some income tax returns are filed as separate returns and others as joint returns; and, consequently, the income reporting unit is not consistently either a family or a person.
Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance earnings record data
For several reasons the earnings data, shown here are not directly comparable with those which may be obtained from the OASDI earnings records. The coverage of the OASDI earnings record data for 1959 is less inclusive than that of the 1960 Census data because of the exclusion of the earnings of self-employed physicians, many civilian government employees, some employees of nonprofit organizations, workers covered by the Railroad Retirement Act, and persons who are not covered by the program because of insufficient earnings, including some self-employed persons, some farm workers, and domestic servants. Furthermore, earnings received from any one employer in excess of $4,800 in 1959 are not covered by the earnings record data. Finally, as the Bureau of the Census data are obtained by household interviews, they will differ from the OASDI earnings record data, which are based upon employers' reports and the Federal income tax returns of self-employed persons.
The age classification is based on the age of the person in completed years as of April 1, 1960, as determined from the reply to a question on month and year of birth.
The term "color" refers to the division of population into two groups, white and nonwhite color group designated as "nonwhite" includes Negro, American Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, Hawaiians, Asian Indians, Malayans, Eskimos, Aleuts, etc. Persons of Mexican birth or ancestry who are not definitely of Indian or other nonwhite race are classified as white.
Years of School Completed
The data on Years of School Completed were derived from the answers to the two questions: (1) "What is the highest grade (or year) of regular school he has ever attended?" and (2) "Did he finish this grade (or year)?" Enumerators were instructed to obtain the approximate equivalent grade in the American school system for persons whose highest grade of attendance was in a foreign school system, whose highest level of attendance was in an ungraded school, whose highest level of schooling was measured by "readers," or whose training by a tutor was regarded as qualifying under the "regular" school definition. Persons were to answer "No" to the second question if they were attending school, had completed only part of a grade before they dropped out, or failed to pass the last grade attended.
The number in each category of highest grade of school completed represents the combination of (a) persons who reported that they had attended the indicated grade and finished it, and (b) those who had attended the next higher grade but had not finished it.

The questions on educational attainment applied only to progress in "regular" schools. Regular schooling is that which may advance a person toward an elementary school certificate or high school diploma, or a college, university, or professional degree. Schooling that was not obtained in a regular school and schooling from a tutor or through correspondence courses were counted only if the credits obtained were regarded as transferable to a school in the regular school system. Schooling which is generally regarded as not regular includes that which is given in nursery schools; in specialized vocational, trade, or business schools; in on-the-job training; and through correspondence courses.
Elementary school, as defined here, includes grades 1 to 8, and high school includes grades 9 to 12. College includes junior or community colleges, regular 4-year colleges, and graduate or professional schools.

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