Occupational structures in service-class households: comparisons of rural, suburban, and inner-city residential environments

The authors explore the composition of service-class households in rural, suburban, and inner-city residential environments in terms of the occupations of household members. Focusing on single-adult and two-adult households, the authors use the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Longitudinal Study (LS) to examine the occupations of LS members and their partners. They find differences in the likelihood that service-class households are single-person households (with inner London standing apart in this regard). Findings contradict dominant messages in the literature that rural areas have fewer women with paid work and fewer with service-class jobs. Most evidently, provincial inner cities stand apart in these terms, with the position regarding paid work for adult couples in rural areas being more similar to paid work for adult couples in London than in suburban or provincial inner-city environments.