Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Non-Hispanic White Occupations

Which occupation is the most non-Hispanic white? That's not easy to figure out because, for some reason, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is exempt from the requirement to publish labor force data by the same race-and-Hispanic-origin categories everyone else is using these days. That's why, in labor force statistics, you see the archaic "white" racial category, which still includes Hispanics. Not helpful! Because the non-Hispanic white population is much older than the Hispanic population, combining the two is an obstacle to understanding non-Hispanic white labor force trends.

But, I digress. By fiddling around with one of the massive 2012 labor force tables (subtracting Asians, blacks, and Hispanics from the total), you can get a rough estimate of the non-Hispanic white share of each occupation. And the most non-Hispanic white occupations are...

1. Farmers, ranchers: 94.0%
2. Chiropractors: 92.5%
3. Veterinarians: 90.7%

At the other end of the scale, the least non-Hispanic white occupation is "graders and sorters of agricultural products." Only 23 percent of workers in this occupation are non-Hispanic white.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey

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