Table 6

Skill-Task Relationships over the Course of a Career

	Task Measures
	Math (1)	Verbal (2)	Mechanical (3)	Science (4)	Interpersonal (5)	Sum of tasks (6)
Experience	0.037***	0.036***	0.027***	0.015***	0.002	0.117***
	(0.006)	(0.005)	(0.005)	(0.006)	(0.006)	(0.016)
Experience squared	−0.000**	−0.000***	−0.000**	−0.000***	−0.000**	−0.001***
	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)
Math score	0.171***	0.121***	−0.072***	0.036***	0.075***	0.332***
	(0.014)	(0.013)	(0.012)	(0.012)	(0.013)	(0.038)
Math * exp	−0.001	−0.002*	−0.001	−0.003**	−0.002	−0.009**
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.004)
Verbal score	−0.052***	0.070***	−0.172***	−0.190***	0.106***	−0.237***
	(0.017)	(0.016)	(0.015)	(0.015)	(0.016)	(0.046)
Verbal * exp	0.008***	0.008***	0.000	0.003**	0.006***	0.026***
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.005)
Mechanical score	−0.000	−0.062***	0.168***	0.098***	−0.077***	0.127***
	(0.015)	(0.013)	(0.013)	(0.012)	(0.014)	(0.039)
Mechanical * exp	0.000	−0.001	0.000	0.001	−0.001	−0.001
	(0.002)	(0.001)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.005)
Science score	0.038**	0.007	0.042***	0.082***	−0.016	0.153***
	(0.017)	(0.016)	(0.015)	(0.015)	(0.016)	(0.047)
Science * exp	−0.003*	−0.002	−0.000	0.002	−0.001	−0.005
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.005)
Interpersonal score	0.076***	0.074***	−0.028**	0.035**	0.095***	0.251***
	(0.015)	(0.014)	(0.013)	(0.014)	(0.015)	(0.040)
Interpersonal * exp	−0.004***	−0.002*	0.001	−0.002**	−0.002	−0.009***
	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.001)	(0.003)
Male	−0.035**	−0.261***	0.533***	0.229***	−0.364***	0.102**
	(0.018)	(0.016)	(0.015)	(0.015)	(0.017)	(0.048)
Male * exp	0.002	0.003	−0.001	−0.004**	0.007***	0.008
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.005)
Black	−0.041**	−0.041**	−0.048***	−0.063***	−0.016	−0.209***
	(0.021)	(0.019)	(0.017)	(0.017)	(0.020)	(0.056)
Black * exp	−0.004	−0.006***	0.006***	0.003	−0.007***	−0.008
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.006)
Hispanic	0.064***	0.130***	−0.088***	−0.077***	0.096***	0.124**
	(0.022)	(0.020)	(0.020)	(0.018)	(0.021)	(0.058)
Hispanic * exp	−0.002	−0.002	0.000	0.004*	−0.000	0.000
	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.002)	(0.007)
Education	0.104***	0.169***	−0.066***	0.048***	0.123***	0.378***
	(0.004)	(0.004)	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.004)	(0.011)
Education * exp	−0.002***	−0.001***	−0.001***	−0.000	0.000	−0.004***
	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.001)
Observations	76,439	76,439	76,439	76,439	76,439	76,439
R²	0.172	0.355	0.271	0.096	0.263	0.226

Notes: *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1. Robust standard errors in parentheses. Sample is restricted to workers with zero to 25 years of experience who took the ASVAB tests before entering the labor market. See Appendix B for the O*Net task categories used to create the task measures that are the dependent variables. The dependent variable in Column 6 is the sum of the other five task measures. The interaction of education and experience is defined as experience times (education minus the mean of education). Standard errors are clustered at the worker level.