Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 34 (2013) 1–13 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com The occupational mismatch amongst Palestinians and Jews in Israel: A new evidence from the LFS 2000–2010 Nabil Khattab a,b,∗,1 , Sami Miaari c,1 a Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel b University of Bristol, United Kingdom c Tel-Aviv University, Israel Received 15 October 2012; received in revised form 26 June 2013; accepted 15 July 2013 Available online 24 July 2013 Abstract This article compares the occupational attainment of qualified Palestinians and Jews in Israel using data obtained from the Labor Force Survey for the years 2000–2010. Our findings show that Sephardi Jews are as likely as most Palestinians to be disadvantaged in their chances of obtaining jobs in certain occupational categories. Some qualified Palestinians tend to seek professions that facilitate self-employment within the ethnic enclave as a way to escape unfair practices on the part of Jewish employers such as attorneys and accounting. In relation to jobs that are scarce within the ethnic enclave such as in natural and life sciences and university lecturers, Palestinians tend to seek jobs within the Jewish controlled labor market where they face a harsher penalty. © 2013 International Sociological Association Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Palestinians in Israel; Sephardi Jews; Labor Market; Inequality; Discrimination; Occupational mismatch 1. Introduction Education is widely recognized as the most impor- tant factor in determining one’s occupational class and chances of upward mobility in modern societies. When people leave school and enter the labor market, they nor- mally seek to convert their human capital into a suitable level of economic and material rewards. In previous stud- ies on ethnicity and the returns on education, it has been ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Sociology, Hebrew Uni- versity of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel. Tel.: +972 25883339. E-mail addresses: nabilk@mscc.huji.ac.il, nabilkhattab@hotmail.com (N. Khattab). 1 Both authors have equally contributed to this paper. pointed out that minorities are likely to face ethnic penal- ties upon entering the labor market (Heath & McMahon, 2005). These penalties can take various forms such as longer periods of unemployment until attaining their first full-time job, lower wages for the same job and quali- fication, occupational mismatch (Khattab et al., 2012; Rafferty, 2012), underemployment and job allocation (Craig et al., 2005; Heath & McMahon, 1997; Modood et al., 1997) compared to members of the majority ethnic group with the same qualifications. One of the important aspects of ethnic penalties in the labor market is the occupational mismatch, especially within the most prestigious and desirable occupations as these are generally the most inaccessible for minorities (Rafferty, 2012) due to unfair practices by employers. Furthermore, most studies addressing the issue of ethnic penalties in the Israeli labor market have largely ignored 0276-5624/$ – see front matter © 2013 International Sociological Association Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2013.07.002