DEMAND MOBILITY

Demand mobility is a form of social mobility more according to demand in changing business and global environment.

Demand mobility takes place over time and is not caused by individuals ascending or descending in class or status, but by changes in the occupational structure of the economy.

In modern economies there is a great amount of demand mobility among occupations. Demand Mobility is occupation movement due to changing business and global environment.

Demand mobility results from there being greater demand for some kinds of labour and a shrinking demand for others and not from the openness of the society.

In a situation of high demand mobility, with little openness, one might find that workers occupy the same relative positions in social and economic position as their parents although performing quite different kinds of work.

"Differences in socioeconomic status and occupational structures caused migrational movements from the agricultural sector to more productive economic areas in late 19th century England and Wales. Out-migrations from agriculture resulted from decreased demand and wages in farm labor due to technological advancement and increased incomes in the non-agricultural sector." - Changing Occupational Structure of Employment, 1971-95 R.A. Wilson, International Journal of Manpower.

Values, Demand and Social Mobility - Robert M. Marsh
American Sociological Review, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Aug., 1963), pp. 565-575 - doi:10.2307/2090072
Abstract: If industrial societies in fact institutionalize universalistic-achievement values in the area of social mobility to a greater extent than pre-industrial societies, one would hypothesize that when inter-societal differences in occupational demand are held constant, industrial societies should still exhibit more mobility than pre-industrial societies. This hypothesis, tested with mobility data at the elite level in industrial and pre-industrial societies, is not strongly supported. This suggests that the greater "openness" of industrial societies may be due almost wholly to sheer quantitative occupational demand, rather than to values and norms of a universalistic-achievement type. - jstor.org

Mobility is most demanded of
– the young over the old
– men over women
– ‘middle positions’ (being supervised and supervising others)
– those working in the knowledge-based sector, services and industry

Mobility demand (or opportunity) differs
– across sectors of economy
– across hierarchical positions in organizations

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