Occupational Age-Grading: Jobs for Older and Younger Nonmanagerial Employees

Abstract

Roles within employment, as well as in society more broadly, are differentiated according to people′s ages. Such occupational grading by age has rarely been examined through detailed characterization of jobs. In this study, 1,140 personnel managers identified and described age-graded jobs for nonmanagerial employees at their own site. Those jobs were classified according to Functional Job Analysis procedures and the Standard Occupational Classification, and were rated by respondents in terms of the importance of 32 characteristics. Four predictions were tested. First, it was found that nonmanagerial jobs defined as mainly for older employees were perceived to make fewer demands on cognitive resources than do younger people′s jobs. Second, some support was obtained for a prediction of greater perceived need for specialized expertise in older people′s jobs, but ambiguity remains in respect of age-graded differences in respect of general metacognitions. Third, the prediction that fewer physical demands would be identified in jobs mainly for older employees was not confirmed, perhaps because of the generally low importance of physical activities in work in current employment. Finally, there was strong support for the prediction that work mainly for younger employees would be perceived to call for greater expenditure of energy and be more rapidly paced.