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Given their druthers for an ideal spouse for their child, most parents would say: "Let him (or her) be a doctor." But when it comes to "my son-in-law...the accountant," well, poor lad. The reason: Accountants don't pack much prestige with the American public, according to a new survey.
Research firm Harris Interactive has been gauging the "prestige quotient" of various jobs in the eyes of Americans for 23 years. The latest results, released on Sept. 6, show the medical profession is as respected as ever, but accounting is losing status. Most of the 1,010 adults surveyed in the Aug. 14 telephone poll gave doctors, scientists, teachers, and ministers thumbs up. But businesspeople, bankers, and accountants (of the 17 professions in the questionnaire) got a tepid reception. The poll had a margin of error of 3%.
Teachers have made the most progress since 1977, when the poll was first conducted. Today, 53% of those polled say educators have prestigious jobs, up from 29% in 1977. Surprisingly, members of Congress now rank up there with military officers in terms of stature (Nos. 7 and 5, respectively). Why are Americans feeling so warmly toward politicians, admirals, and generals? "The country is doing extraordinary well," explains Humphrey Taylor, Harris chairman.
POLL CLIMBERS. Other professions were left to count losses. Lawyers "have just taken an incredible beating," Taylor says. But that occupation still has more stature than those of businesspeople, professional athletes, entertainers, union leaders, and (ugh) journalists.
But don't despair, says Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, which conducts its own occupation surveys. Smith says most occupations' prestige actually changes very little over 40 or 50 years. If you're an accountant, people didn't think much of your job in 1950, either.
There have been some big swings, Smith says. The job of police officer took a real pounding after the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles in 1992. When U.S. astronauts landed on the moon, that profession rose a mile-high in everyone's eyes, he adds. NORC's own 1989 survey of 740 occupations showed panhandler to be the least prestigious profession and pole climber for the phone company to be somewhere in the middle. Doctors, university presidents, and astronauts have always rocked.
Too bad that, according to the Labor Dept., the occupations with the most workers among the 140.5 million employed Americans are, in order, retail salespeople (4 million), other salespeople (3.4 million), general managers and top executives (3.4 million), cashiers (3.2 million), and janitors and maids (3.2 million). But the country has only 576,870 (1998 figures) physicians, and med students are hard to find. Given those numbers, maybe being an accountant shouldn't look all that bad.
By Olga Kharif in Washington
Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
PRESTIGE OF 17 PROFESSIONS
AND OCCUPATIONS
Very great
Considerable
Some
Hardly Any
Don't know
Doctor
61
27
10
1
1
Scientist
56
28
12
2
2
Teacher
53
23
17
6
1
Minister
45
28
19
6
1
Military Officer
42
28
25
5
1
Police Officer
38
26
26
8
1
Member of Congress
33
29
25
10
2
Engineer
32
34
28
4
1
Architect
26
32
33
6
2
Lawyer
21
28
32
18
2
Athlete
21
22
42
14
2
Entertainer
21
19
41
17
1
Journalist
16
31
37
14
2
Union Leader
16
24
34
23
3
Banker
15
28
44
11
2
Businessperson
15
33
43
7
1
Accountant
14
29
41
13
3
Data: Harris Interactive
By Olga Kharif in Washington Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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