The contribution of occupational profiling to explaining and forecasting job satisfaction were analyzed by using data on job satisfaction for 33,249 workers from waves 1-7 of the British Household Panel Survey. Overall job satisfaction gradients were defined for major and minor groups of occupations in the United Kingdom's Standard Occupational Classification. The level and congruence of the material aspects and quality of work life aspects of job satisfaction in individual occupational unit groups (OUGs) were profiled. Stark contrasts emerged between fortunate OUGs, where levels of both modes of satisfaction are high, and disfavored OUGs, where both are low. Although the analysis results were consistent with earlier accounts of alienation in industrial settings, the findings required more comprehensive forms of explanation involving established findings about the correlates of job satisfaction. Regression analysis demonstrated that, in many cases, levels of satisfaction in OUGs could be accounted for largely in terms of individual and organizational variables. However, significant occupational effects remained for a large minority of OUGs. Industry was discounted as a minor influence on job satisfaction. The scope for more general explanations of job satisfaction in terms of relative deprivation was suggested, and methods for predicting trends in job satisfaction were outlined. (Contains 22 tables and 46 references.) (Author/MN)