Derivation of Hope-Goldthorpe Occupational Classification

A new data note with code to generate the Hope-Goldthorpe scale for NCDS6 is available from CLS.

Data Note 2007/4 with code to generate the Hope-Goldthorpe scale for NCDS6 is available from CLS.

In order for researchers to be able to analysis change using the H-G scale in NCDS data, a syntax version of the 36- point H-G scale has been devised by CLS researchers, Kelly Ward and Shirley Dex which can be applied to NCDS6 data. The devising of the syntax was an iterative process. First, the clear-cut uncontroversial occupations listed in Goldthorpe and Hope’s (1974) description of the 36-point scale were coded. Occupations which failed to be coded were then inspected manually and further syntax devised to code them up until the coding was as complete as possible. Inevitably some occupation codes could not be coded.

It would be possible for researchers to edit the variable names embedded in this syntax to generate H-G scores for other sweeps of British birth cohort data if they so wish.