Is the “Treiman constant” actually constant? An assessment using two Spanish occupational prestige scales: 1991 and 2013

It is recurrently claimed that occupational prestige scales are invariant over time (the so-called Treiman constant). However, the changes experienced in recent decades in terms of globalization, automation, polarization, or migratory movements, among others, may have modified the occupational structure of the country's labor market and its citizens' perception toward the valuation of occupations. This study aims to evaluate the (in)-variance of occupational sorting with Spanish data using two scales elaborated at two different moments in time separated by more than 20 years. The results indicate that occupations related to financial, managerial, and political activities reduced their level of prestige whereas occupations on social care or occupations with a manual component improved over this period. Additional exercises on the relationship between occupational characteristics and variation in occupational prestige reveal the relevance of the proportion of migrants or public sector workers in the social recognition of an occupation.