Professional class

The professional class refers to those individuals identified as professionals. Individuals in this particular group commonly distinguish themselves from other social groups by obtaining graduate degrees and holding highly specialized occupations cite web|url=http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco1002.htm|title=US Bureau of Labor list of professional occupations|accessdate=2006-06-23] . Examples of such professions include academics, architects, engineers, some types of lawyers, physicians, dentists, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, some non-corporate business-owners, economists, political scientists and other so-called "hard" scientists cite web|url=http://www.nadbank.com/English/method/glossary.htm|title=NADbank classification of occupations|accessdate=2006-06-23] cite web|url=http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco1002.htm|title=US Bureau of Labor list of professional occupations|accessdate=2006-06-23] . Persons of this group are most likely members of the upper middle class and tend to maintain comfortable incomes.cite book | last =Adams | first =J.Q. | authorlink = | coauthors =Pearlie Strother-Adams | year =2001 | title =Dealing with Diversity | publisher =Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company | location =Chicago, IL | id = ISBN 0-7872-8145-X] The term is arguably applied to those members of the upper middle class who are not grouped in the managerial class. In the US the upper middle class could arguably divided along sociopolitical lines, between the rather conservative managerial class and the professional class, which tends to be more liberal in terms of their political beliefs as well as tastes.

ee also

*Upper middle class
*Managerial class
*Upper class
*Profession
*Social class
*Household income in the United States
*Six figure income

References