Schooling Degree, Social Position and Occupational Destinations: University Graduates

Abstract

The central theme of this paper is the relationships between the occupational destination of university graduates and their incomes. This occupational destination includes the occupation and the status in employment. The general hypothesis is that, more than the area of training and occupational categories, the most important factor for a higher position in the income hierarchy is the association with management or command occupations. This occurs both in terms of occupation, with the group for legislators, senior officials and managers systematically at the top, and in terms of status in employment, with employers or equivalent always in the highest position. Thus, in addition to the differences in income between the occupational categories, when correlating them with their status in employment, a second hierarchy emerges in conformity with the relationships with their categories. Seven countries were analysed and the results were systematically recurrent, with only minor variations.