Occupational mobility in England

This paper examines evidence on occupational movement in England using data from the New Earnings Panel Dataset. Although most occupations are charact erized by a high degree of immobility, there is some evidence of an increas e in occupational mobility between 1990 and 1994. Using a compound Poisson modelling approach for count data combined with a gravity model, the paper investigates the incentives and constraints upon aggregate movement between occupations over two time periods, 1955-90 and 1990-94. Results suggest th at the responsiveness of movement into a wide range of occupations as a res ult of a rise in wages is relatively elastic for males and relatively inela stic for females. The paper also demonstrates that significant barriers to movement exist, which either prevent a response to market signals or inhibi t the extent of that response.