For the past year, YouGov has examined the industries Americans see positively and negatively, as well as the industries Americans believe should be regulated more and less. In both cases, we found that political identity plays a large role in shaping Americans’ views of various sectors of the US economy, with Democrats and Republicans holding vastly different opinions on industries such as mining, higher education, and news media.
In our most recent survey of 1,000 US adults on business sectors, we examine how Americans perceive the political ideology of workers in American industries. We asked if people in the US who work in 30 sectors are very or somewhat liberal, very or somewhat conservative, or both conservative and liberal. The results show that workers in certain sectors — such as cannabis and entertainment — are viewed by most Americans as predominantly liberal, while workers in other sectors — such as firearms, oil and gas — are viewed more conservatively.
The five sectors from the list of 30 whose workers Americans are most likely to describe as “mostly liberal” or “more liberal than conservative”:
- cannabis
- Entertainment
- Fashion
- higher education
- Training
The five sectors from the list of 30 whose workers Americans are most likely to describe as “mostly conservative” or “more conservative than liberal”:
- firearms
- oil and gas
- Agriculture
- mining and natural resources
- Truck transport
We also find that a person’s own ideology shapes their views on the ideology of workers in different industries, with Americans generally more likely to say that workers in a sector belong to the ideology opposed to their own. For example, Americans who identify themselves as conservatives are more likely than liberals to describe sectors as either “overwhelmingly liberal” or “more liberal than conservative,” with the largest differences in perceptions centered around the news media and government.
In contrast, Americans who describe themselves as liberal are more likely than conservatives to say that workers in certain sectors are “largely conservative” or “more conservative than liberal.” This applies in particular to banking and finance as well as health insurance and pharmaceuticals.
Despite some major differences in the magnitude of their estimates, liberals and conservatives generally agree in ranking sectors according to workers’ political ideology.
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— Carl Bialik and Linley Sanders contributed to this article
Check out the results of this YouGov poll
Methodology: This survey was conducted online March 21-23, 2023 among 1,000 U.S. adults. Each respondent was asked about a random sample of 20 of the 30 industries. Respondents were randomly selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel. A random sample (stratified by sex, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race, education, turnout and 2020 presidential election, grassroots party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets are from the 2019 American Community Survey. Base party identification is the respondent’s last response prior to March 15, 2022 and is weighted with the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democrat, 28% Republican). The margin of error for the total sample is about 4%.
Image: Adobe Stock (diter)
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