(Not just) Intelligence stratifies the occupational hierarchy: Ranking 360 professions by IQ and non-cognitive traits

Occupational sorting, the process of individuals actively selecting into and being selected for different occupations, has significant implications for social stratification and inequality. The psychometric view of occupational differentials in ability emphasizes the importance of intelligence for occupational sorting, as it acts as a necessary condition to enter and remain in certain professions due to their high cognitive demand. The resulting cognitive stratification of the occupational hierarchy leads to strong associations between occupational mean IQ and sociological measures of occupational status and pay. Past research has been criticized for lack of representativeness and small sample sizes. In this study, we both confirm the psychometric view in a large representative sample and extend it to a set of nine non-cognitive traits. We show that the psychometric view holds (on a weaker level) for multiple non-cognitive traits, and using small-area estimation, we provide precise mean estimates and rankings of intelligence and non-cognitive traits for 360 occupations, including rare professions. Keywords: Social Stratification, Occupation, Non-Cognitive Traits. •The importance of intelligence for occupational sorting was studied and compared to personality and non-cognitive traits.•Estimates of cognition and non-cognitive traits for 360 occupations were constructed using small area estimation.•The central role of intelligence for occupational stratification, was confirmed.•Similar, but weaker effect were found for non-cognitive traits.