Abstract: The increase in employment polarization observed in a number of high-income economies has coincided with a reduction
in inter-generational mobility. This paper uses data for two British cohorts that entered the labour market at two points in time that
differed considerably in terms of the structure of employment to re-examine the drivers of mobility. We differ from the existing literature
in two aspects. First, we focus on employment categories rather than income, thus obtaining dynamics that can be understood in terms of
changes in the structure of employment. Second, we argue that understanding inter-generational dynamics requires considering how individuals
move from their entry jobs into other employment categories, i.e. understanding intra-generational mobility. The data indicate that
occupational changes over the individual’s career are an important source of mobility, with large shares of those in low-paying
(respectively, middling) occupations moving into middling (resp. high-paying) ones. When we compare the two cohorts we find that these two
sources of mobility have declined for the younger cohort and that, whatever the initial occupation, parental income has become more important
in leading to occupational upgrading. Moreover, the impact of parental income increased the most in the regions where the share of middling
employment fell the most, suggesting that increased employment polarization may be one of the factors behind the observed decline in mobility.
