Dead occupation, in vocational psychology dictionary

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Dictionary of Vocational Psychology

Dead Occupation

An occupation for which there is no longer a pressing economic need. Those individuals choosing to continue to pursue such work may need to do so as an avocational or volunteer activity, or at the very least to accept a lower form of compensation than their talents would bring were they directed to economically viable occupations.

Of course, occupations that were once commonplace may survive in isolated economic niches long after their general economic justification has vanished. For example, although most scoreboards in major league baseball parks have been converted to electronic display, the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field continue to rely on a 70-year-old human-manipulated scoreboard. Requiring a head scorekeeper and 3 other workers to keep pace with changing scores from across the league as well as the game in play, the scoreboard is a relic from the days before electronic lights and computer-driven signals replaced humans who kept score by replacing placards. Fans love Wrigley in part because it clings to tradition, but in major league baseball the Wrigley scorekeepers are essentially living occupational fossils. Skills required to keep score in this system have been handed down, largely unchanged, since the scoreboard was built in 1937 (Nunn, 2007).

In Japan, the government designates some individuals with high levels of skill in some dead occupations as being "national treasures," and will provide them with stipends in order to maintain their skill set and pass it through training onto the next generation.

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