People rate the ‘general standing’ of an occupation (the most common question). It is taken to be a measure of occupational prestige and hence of the social status of occupations. Many other criteria have been proposed, including ‘social usefulness’ as well as ‘prestige’ and ‘status’ themselves. In order to obtain the scale of occupations (which is invariably taken to be national in application), respondents' ratings are aggregated.
Job prestige did not become a fully developed concept until 1947 when the [[National Opinion Research Center]] (NORC), under the leadership of Cecil C. North,<ref name="North1949">{{cite journal | last1 = North | first1 = C. | last2 = HartHatt | first2 = P. K. | year = 1949 | title = Jobs and Occupations: A popular evaluation | url = | journal = Opinion News | volume = 9 | issue = | page = 313 }}</ref> conducted a [[opinion poll|survey]] which held questions regarding age, [[education]], and [[income]] in regard to the prestige of certain [[employment|job]]s. This was the first time job prestige had ever been researched, measured, and taught. Duncan's Socioeconomic Index (DSI, SEI) <ref name=Duncan1961>Duncan, O. D. (1961). A Socioeconomic Index for all Occupations. In J. Reiss, Jr. (Ed.), Occupations and Social Status (pp. 109–138). New York: Free Press of Glencoe</ref> became one of the most important outcomes of this survey, as it gave various occupational categories different scores based on the survey results as well as the result of [[1950 United States Census|the 1950 Census of Population]]. During the 1960s the NORC did a second generation of surveys which became the basis for the socioeconomic status (SES) score until the 1980s as well as the foundation for Trieman's International Prestige Scale in 1977. Out of these surveys and research job prestige has been defined in various ways. Some definitions include:
* The consensual nature of rating a job based on the collective belief of its worthiness.
* Prestige is the measurement of the "desirability" of an occupation in terms of socioeconomic rewards.