Charts of the week: The digitalization of American occupations, family-level inequality, and mayoral powers

Click on the links or on the charts to go to the full research.

THE DIGITALIZATION OF AMERICAN OCCUPATIONS VARIES WIDELY BY INDUSTRY

In a new report, experts from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program explore the diffusion of digital technology in 545 low-, medium-, and high-skilled occupations. From 2002 to 2016 digitalization increased in 517 of the 545 occupations analyzed but varied widely among occupations and across industries. Click here or on the chart below to access the full interactive that tracks the digitalization of the professions in the study.

MARRIAGE GAPS AND ASSORTATIVE MATING CONTRIBUTE TO INCOME INEQUALITY

Richard Reeves and Katherine Guyot, experts from the Center on Children and Families, find that the combined effects of increased educational attainment among women, rising returns to education, marriage gaps by education level, and assortative mating have increased the growing income inequality at the family level. One of these factors, the rise of women’s wages , is displayed in the chart below. Women’s incomes have risen across all levels of educational attainment but the biggest difference has been for those with a bachelor’s degree.

THERE IS A LARGE PERCEPTION GAP BETWEEN WHAT MAYORS CONTROL AND WHAT THEY ARE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR

In a new report that explores mayoral powers in a shifting political economy and governing landscape, Alaina Harkness from the Centennial Scholar Initiative finds that mayors are held accountable for things—like education and crime— that their office has little formal control over. The chart below uses information collected by the Initiative on Cities that surveyed 89 mayors on what they believe they control and what they are held accountable for.

Sara Ahmed contributed to this post.