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NPBOSS50
Nam-Powers-Boyd occupational status score, 1950 basis
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Description

NPBOSS50 is a constructed 4-digit numeric variable that assigns a Nam-Powers-Boyd occupational status score to each occupation using the occupational classification scheme available in OCC1950 variable.

User caution: There is significant debate about the usefulness of composite measures of occupational standing (in the IPUMS, these variables include SEI, HWSEI, NPBOSS50, and NPBOSS90). We strongly urge researchers to read our user note on this issue and to familiarize themselves with the debates surrounding the use of these variables.

The NPBOSS50 is a measure of occupational status based upon the median earnings and median educational attainment associated with each category in the occupational scheme available in OCC1950 variable. Occupational status score gives equal weights to education and earnings, and can be interpreted as the percentage of persons in the civilian labor force who are in occupations having combined levels of education and earnings below that occupation. The scores can vary from 0 to 100. The scores were calculated at the Minnesota Population Center following the methodology described by Nam and Boyd (2004). The scores were based on the earnings and education levels of the employed civilian labor force aged 16 and above, excluding persons who did not work in the past one year.

NPBOSS50 used year specific data to calculate scores for 1950 onward. However as the earning and education data were not available for pre-1950 censuses, the 1950's NPBOSS50 scores are assigned for cases in pre-1950 censuses.

For more information, see C. B. Nam and M. Boyd, "Occupational Status in 2000: Over a Century of Census-based Measurement," Population Research and Policy Review 23 (2004): 327-358.

The OCC1950 categories 12-29 (professors and instructors) were treated as one single category in the process of deriving NPBOSS50, since there were not enough cases to be kept as separate categories. All these occupational categories have the same value of NPBOSS50.

Alternative measures of occupational standing that are based on OCC1950 are available in EDSCOR50, ERSCOR50, OCCSCORE, PRESGL, and SEI. For information on the construction of OCC1950 and occupational standing measures, see "Integrated Occupation and Industry Codes and Occupational Standing Variables in the IPUMS."