pp. 177-226

The social evaluation of professions and the construction of a scale of professions has never met with much success in France. This approach is claimed to be a simplist representation of the social sphere and a functionalistic interpretation of inequality. In this study, a different interpretation, a more literal one, is put forward for this evaluation tool, and, based on a recent survey by the INSEE, a scale is being built for France. This article shows the strong correlation between the evaluations produced by the different categories of professions. Job stability and autonomy appear to be almost as decisive as the salary when evaluating different jobs. However, for a given salary and stability, a job loses its value when it implies supervisory or commercial functions. The scale produced in this article is compared to those developed from post-war surveys in different parts of the world. It would appear that the jobs occupied by qualified personnel are now positioned at a lower level on the profession evaluation scale.