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Socio-economic classification in the UK
The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) produced a new socio-economic classification in 2001.
Group / Description / Social class1 / Higher professional and managerial workers / upper middle class
2 / Intermediate managerial, administrative and professional workers. / middle class
3 / Intermediate occupations and skilled manual workers / lower middle class and skilled working class
4 / Small Employers and nonprofessional self-employed / lower middle class and skilled working class
5 / Lower Supervisory and technical / lower middle class and skilled working class
6 / Semi and unskilled manual workers / working class
7 / Semi and unskilled manual workers / working class
8 / Long-term unemployed, pensioners and others who depend on the state for their income / Those at the lowest levels of subsistence ("underclass")
A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialized set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to nurses, accountants, educators, scientists, technology experts, social workers, artists, librarians (information professionals) and many more.
A blue-collar worker is a member of the working class who performs manual labour. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled, manufacturing, mining, construction, mechanical, maintenance, technical installation and many other types of physical work. Blue is a popular colour for coveralls which protect a worker's clothing
In contrast, the white-collar worker typically performs work in an office environment and may involve sitting at a computer or desk.
Historically the popularity of the colour blue among manual labourers contrasts with the popularity of white dress shirts worn by men in office environments. The blue collar/white collar colour scheme has socio-economic class connotations.
Social class
Although there are different theoretical and practical approaches to the definition of "social class" , we may initially adopt a simplified working definition of social class as “a large group of people whose economic circumstances, usually measured by their incomes, wealth and occupation, are broadly similar”. On this basis, many would say that we can distinguish three separate social classes in the U.K.: the working class, the middle class, and the upper class, but that there also important divisions within these classes so that, for example, we might also distinguish between unskilled and skilled working class people and\or between lower and upper middle class people etc
Unskilled and semi-skilled working class: Traditionally, these people would work in blue-collar jobs. They would typically have left school as soon as legally permissible and not have been able to take part in higher education. Many would go on to work semi-skilled and unskilled jobs
Skilled working class: This class of people would be in skilled blue-collar jobs, traditionally in the construction and manufacturing industry, but in recent decades showing entrepreneurial development as the stereotypical white van man, or self-employed contractors.
Middle class
Lower middle class: The British lower middle class primarily consists of white-collar workers and their families living in less affluent suburbs. They are typically employed in white-collar but relatively unskilled service industry jobs such as retail sales, travel agents, factory and other industrial building owners and low level civil service jobs in local and regional government.
The middle middle class in Britain often consists of people with tertiary education. Typical jobs include accountants, architects, solicitors, teachers, social workers, managers, specialist IT workers, business people, engineers, or civil servants.
Upper middle class: The upper middle class in Britain broadly consists of people who were born into families which have traditionally possessed high incomes, although this group is defined more by family background than by job or income.
The upper middle class are traditionally educated at prestigious private schools and are known as "public schools", founded to serve the educational needs of the upper middle class.
The upper class in modern societies is the social class composed of the wealthiest members of society, who also wield the greatest political power. In the United Kingdom, the "upper class" traditionally comprised the aristocracy of "noble" families with hereditary titles. The vast majority of aristocratic families originated in the merchant class, and were ennobled between the 14th and 19th century.[2] Since World War II, the term has come to encompass rich and powerful members of the managerial and professional classes as well.
Social Class and Life Chances
Sociologists regard "Social Class" as an important variable because social class membership can be shown to influence many other aspects of individuals live experiences. Thus, for example:
- babies born to working mothers a lower average birth weight than babies born to middle and upper social class mothers;
- members of the working class have, on average, poorer health;
- members of the working class have less work satisfaction and are more likely to suffer injuries at work;
- members of the working class have lower average life expectancy;
- working class children are on average less successful in education than children from middle and upper classes.
Read:
The extent of health inequalities: although life expectancy increased for all social groups between the periods 1972-6 and 2002-05, health inequalities—gaps in life expectancies between social groups—have persisted…