# Ethnic distribution in the labor force

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 29, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635 "2009-10-29T18:35:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/1 "2009-10-29T18:35:23Z")

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I was wondering if anyone could give me stats on which percentage of races/ethnic groups are in which job types. In particular, I’m trying to find out what percentage of Jewish people are in which positions. I seem to notice a lot of Jews in the diamond biz, doctors, banking, Hollywood, the creative process, a lot of physics related jobs, etc.

The reason I ask is that a friend of mine is Jewish and he says that Jews only go for jobs where the money and the brains are. A couple of his favorite jokes are:

Did you hear about the Jewish parents who were disappointed in the young Jewish son?  
He flunked out of medical school and had to settle for becoming a lawyer.

Q. Why did God create Gentiles?  
A. Somebody has to pay retail.

It doesn’t seem like you run into many Jewish cops, fireman, soldiers, city workers, construction, etc.

Are Jews inordinately stacked in certain industries like money, doctors, banking, physics, etc.?

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**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/2 "2009-10-29T21:06:15Z")

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My closest Jewish friend (not an “official” Jew, since it’s his dad’s side of the family) plays in a band and works at a big chain bookstore. Not exactly where the big money’s at.

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**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/3 "2009-10-29T21:58:45Z")

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A cite for you:

> [@](#):
>
> Religion as a Determinant of Educational Attainment: An Economic Perspective\*1
> 
> Evelyn L. Lehrerf2
> 
> Economics Department, University of Illinois at Chicago
> 
> Available online 27 March 2002.
> 
> Abstract
> 
> This paper uses data from the 1987–88 National Survey of Families and Households to study how the religion in which individuals are brought up influences the number of years of schooling that they complete. In multivariate analyses where a large number of other family background factors are held constant, significant differences by religion are uncovered: educational attainment is highest among Jews and lowest among fundamentalist Protestants, with Catholics and mainline Protestants at the center of the distribution. Various channels through which religion may influence the level of schooling are considered, within the framework of a human capital model that distinguishes between supply and demand factors. The empirical findings suggest that while demand influences are most important in explaining the high education of Jews, the relatively low schooling level of fundamentalist Protestants reflects supply and demand forces of similar strength. Analyses of schooling transitions shed light on the stages of the process at which the divergences occur.

Jewish kids are likely to be more educated that kids from families of other religions. I’m sure you’ll buy that more education leads to higher status occupations without a citation, right? So yeah, Jews are probably more concentrated in higher status occupations than other folks. Whether or not that makes those jokes funny is another question all together.

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**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/4 "2009-10-30T05:02:24Z")

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> [@BetsQ](#):
>
> A cite for you:
> 
> Jewish kids are likely to be more educated that kids from families of other religions. I’m sure you’ll buy that more education leads to higher status occupations without a citation, right? So yeah, Jews are probably more concentrated in higher status occupations than other folks. Whether or not that makes those jokes funny is another question all together.

That’s the kind of thing I’m looking for and even more specific if you’ve got it. And yes, I definitely agree that more education gives you more opportunities. The question I have is why are jewish kids able to go to college more? That implies higher overall income from the parents.

Also, like the jokes or not, that was Glen being an anti-gentilic racist. Of course, it doesn’t count as racism if a minority does it. It only counts as such when a white person does it.

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**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/5 "2009-10-30T14:46:48Z")

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> [@jakesteele](#):
>
> Of course, it doesn’t count as racism if a minority does it. It only counts as such when a white person does it.

Yes, by all means, GQ is exactly the forum to whine about how hard it is to be a fine upstanding young white Protestant man these days.

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**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/6 "2009-10-30T15:57:07Z")

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I’m not all that familiar with the literature on religion, occupation, and occupation, but I can offer a little data. I’m using the General Social Survey, years 2000-2008. You can play around with the data yourself if you google “SDA Archives”. I’m not doing anything fancy with the data, just running some quick numbers. For the sake of this, I’m looking at three groups: Protestant (n=7210), Catholic (n=4257, and Jewish (n=277). There are people who don’t fall into any of those categories, but not enough for anything statistically significant.

First, religion and education in the U.S. Here are the stats:

Among Protestants:  
16% have less than a high school diploma;  
29% have a high school diploma, but no college;  
30% have some college;  
14% have a BA/BA;  
11% have done some sort of graduate school

For Catholics, the numbers are:  
16%  
27%  
30%  
16%  
12%

For Jews:  
1%  
10%  
28%  
25%  
36%

I don’t have a good source of data to answer the question why Jews have higher levels of education, but can offer two hypotheses. First, Jewish religious tradition (as I understand it) emphasizes scholarly learning. Second, Jews are much more likely to live in cities than Protestants or Catholics (GSS data support this: 71% of Jews live in large cities or the suburbs of large cities, compared to 31% of Protestants and 54% of Catholics). People in urban areas have higher levels of education and the job market in urban areas tends to be more white collar/professional.  
Next, I looked at religion and occupational prestige. An occupational prestige score assigns each occupation a score from 1-100 based on how prestigious that occupation is. I’m too lazy today to do anything more than look at the distribution, so here it is:

Prestige score % of Prots % of Cath % of Jews  
1-24 8% 8% 1%  
25-49 58% 58% 46%  
50-74 33% 33% 46%  
75-100 1% 1% 7%

Basically, Jews are more likely to be in high prestige jobs than Protestants or Catholics. (Note that this does not mean that someone in a high prestige job is more likely to be Jewish than Protestant or Catholic.)

I’d look at the relationship between religion and income, but I can’t find an income variable I’m happy enough with. Hope this helps, though.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/7 "2009-10-30T16:08:01Z")

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Do these numbers carry across all countries, or just the U.S.?

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**Author:** ![BetsQ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/fbc32d/32.png) [@BetsQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BetsQ)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/8 "2009-10-30T16:12:22Z")

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> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#):
>
> Do these numbers carry across all countries, or just the U.S.?

Sorry for not specifying - this is U.S. data.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/9 "2009-10-30T18:33:24Z")

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> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#):
>
> Yes, by all means, GQ is exactly the forum to whine about how hard it is to be a fine upstanding young white Protestant man these days.

Please explain to me how his jokes aren’t anti-gentilic. And it’s also just like a liberal PCer to jump someone who is simply stating a fact.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/10 "2009-10-30T18:35:26Z")

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> [@BetsQ](#):
>
> I’m not all that familiar with the literature on religion, occupation, and occupation, but I can offer a little data. I’m using the General Social Survey, years 2000-2008. You can play around with the data yourself if you google “SDA Archives”. I’m not doing anything fancy with the data, just running some quick numbers. For the sake of this, I’m looking at three groups: Protestant (n=7210), Catholic (n=4257, and Jewish (n=277). There are people who don’t fall into any of those categories, but not enough for anything statistically significant.
> 
> First, religion and education in the U.S. Here are the stats:
> 
> Among Protestants:  
> 16% have less than a high school diploma;  
> 29% have a high school diploma, but no college;  
> 30% have some college;  
> 14% have a BA/BA;  
> 11% have done some sort of graduate school
> 
> For Catholics, the numbers are:  
> 16%  
> 27%  
> 30%  
> 16%  
> 12%
> 
> For Jews:  
> 1%  
> 10%  
> 28%  
> 25%  
> 36%
> 
> I don’t have a good source of data to answer the question why Jews have higher levels of education, but can offer two hypotheses. First, Jewish religious tradition (as I understand it) emphasizes scholarly learning. Second, Jews are much more likely to live in cities than Protestants or Catholics (GSS data support this: 71% of Jews live in large cities or the suburbs of large cities, compared to 31% of Protestants and 54% of Catholics). People in urban areas have higher levels of education and the job market in urban areas tends to be more white collar/professional.  
> Next, I looked at religion and occupational prestige. An occupational prestige score assigns each occupation a score from 1-100 based on how prestigious that occupation is. I’m too lazy today to do anything more than look at the distribution, so here it is:
> 
> Prestige score % of Prots % of Cath % of Jews  
> 1-24 8% 8% 1%  
> 25-49 58% 58% 46%  
> 50-74 33% 33% 46%  
> 75-100 1% 1% 7%
> 
> Basically, Jews are more likely to be in high prestige jobs than Protestants or Catholics. (Note that this does not mean that someone in a high prestige job is more likely to be Jewish than Protestant or Catholic.)
> 
> I’d look at the relationship between religion and income, but I can’t find an income variable I’m happy enough with. Hope this helps, though.

That’s good stuff, thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/11 "2009-10-30T22:01:17Z")

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Just a WAG that’s been kicking around in my head today…

How were the economic demographics of Jews in Europe affected by the Holocaust? Presumably, people with more money and better connections would have been better placed to escape and/or hide than people farther down the social ladder. The Holocaust could have disproportionately wiped out lower-class Jews, and upper-class Jews could have disproportionately emigrated to the U.S. either immediately before or at various times since.

> [@jakesteele](#):
>
> Please explain to me how his jokes aren’t anti-gentilic. And it’s also just like a liberal PCer to jump someone who is simply stating a fact.

I didn’t quote that part of your post. I’m not going to get into everything that \*\*is \*\*wrong with the part of your post that I quoted, because, as I have observed, this is GQ, which is not the proper forum.

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**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/12 "2009-10-31T02:15:38Z")

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I suspect that the differences are mostly caused by indirect demographics. Jews in Europe were historically mostly urban merchants and so that many of them have remained in the urban middle class is hardly surprising. If you were to look at the same data for any group which has reliably been in the urban middle class, I suspect there will be no difference based on Jewishness alone.

But, if I may get a little abstract here, this question is just about one step up from asking about statistics about Poles holding patents for madcap inventions. Obviously there is some reason why people decided to start this stereotype, but beyond that what can you really say? Is your goal to conclusively prove this stereotype?

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**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/13 "2009-10-31T02:29:18Z")

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> [@jakesteele](#):
>
> It doesn’t seem like you run into many Jewish cops, fireman, soldiers, city workers, construction, etc.

There are a lot of Jewish cops, firemen, soldiers, and city workers. In Israel.

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/14 "2009-10-31T02:57:46Z")

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> [@jakesteele](#):
>
> Of course, it doesn’t count as racism if a minority does it. It only counts as such when a white person does it.

Since we’re in GQ, I have to say:

This is exactly true.

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**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-distribution-in-the-labor-force/515635/15 "2009-10-31T13:29:15Z")

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> [@jakesteele](#):
>
> I was wondering if anyone could give me stats on which percentage of races/ethnic groups are in which job types. In particular, I’m trying to find out what percentage of Jewish people are in which positions. I seem to notice a lot of Jews in the diamond biz, doctors, banking, Hollywood, the creative process, a lot of physics related jobs, etc.
> 
> The reason I ask is that a friend of mine is Jewish and he says that Jews only go for jobs where the money and the brains are. A couple of his favorite jokes are:

That’s funny, I have a pimply face friend who posts to message boards one handed. Some of his favorite jokes are:

What sticks to the wall?  
My socks,