Top-Level Executives and Professionals: A Statistical Definition of Elite Occupations

This article presents the theoretical framework, the construction method and the initial analyses of a new category associated with the official French socio-economic classification (Professions et catégories socioprofessionnelles [PCS 2020]), named 'top-level executives and professionals', which aims to identify the most top-ranking occupations in French society. This category identifies, among managers, professionals and higher-level intellectual occupations, the upper fraction of positions (salaried or otherwise) involving major responsibilities in work organizations and/or recognized high-level expertise. Identified on the basis of their title and occupational characteristics, these positions correspond to an 'occupational elite' (3% of the working population) that bridges the sociology of stratification and the sociology of elites. Through its inclusion in public statistical surveys, this category provides a new approach for analysing socio-economic inequalities, complementary to those based on educational level or income. As an initial illustration of its potential empirical utility, this article provides evidence of very strong intergenerational reproduction at the top of the social hierarchy.