"White" and "Blue" Collar Cities (people, cons, difference)

[Thomas R.]

Originally Posted by Caymon83

I think education levels is the best way to measure how "white collar" an area is.

I think I may have went by something like that then worried it was too simplistic.

The American Community Survey does something like that.

United States by Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area; and for Puerto Rico - GCT1502. Percent of People 25 Years and Over Who Have Completed a Bachelor's Degree<BR>Universe: Population 25 years and over

United States by Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area; and for Puerto Rico - GCT1503. Percent of People 25 Years and Over Who Have Completed an Advanced Degree<BR>Universe: Population 25 years and over

Going by that Ann Arbor, Michigan; Boulder Colorado; Corvallis, Oregon; and Ithaca, New York have the highest percent with bachelor's degrees. However they're smaller cities or college towns.

Boston and DC would seem to be the prime educated cities. Raleigh-Cary-Durham looks fairly close.

Low-educated by that list includes: Bakersfield, California; Brownsville, Texas; Fort Smith, Arkansas; and Lima, Ohio.

[tmac9wr]

^^ Cool list! I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that Boston, DC, and the Bay Area have the highest percentages of people with undergrad and advanced degrees.

[BergenCountyJohnny]

My town is mixed. It's not even just White or Blue collar, it's others as well. I've noticed that the collar someone wears has more to do with what color the rest of the shirt is, so people with white shirts tend to have white collars, blue shirts have blue collars, red shirts have red collars, etc...

I try to stick to white collars and sometimes blue collars for work, but for going out I wear black shirts with black collars very often. I have striped collars on my striped shirts, too.

But definitely it's mixed where I live, with all colors of collars.

[Lifeshadower]

I like blue collared shirts more than white ones. In fact, I wear blue or red collars way more than I wear white collars to work

I'm actually kind of surprised so many people think LA is a White Collar place. It's actually quite the opposite, in my opinion. Outside of the Westside, South Orange County (Irvine to San Clemente), and parts of the San Fernando Valley, its a very blue collar type of place. If you count the Inland Empire as part of LA, it becomes even more blue collar. However, like most things in LA, these industries are spread out throughout the metro area

The Bay Area definitely has some blue collar areas, especially in the East Bay. However, there are way more people who earn $100,000+ (which is pretty much nothing here) than there are making only $30,000.

San Diego always struck me as kind of in the middle. There's a huge biotechnology cluster there disproportionate for its size, and a huge research area, but there is still a very noticeable military presence. I get the same type of feeling in Sacramento, with government jobs being there and such (as opposed to the rest of the Central Valley)

However, in the end, I think its hard to generalize most cities into white or blue collar. Both need each other to survive on a day-to-day basis. I'd want to learn some blue collar trades so I don't get ripped off anymore

[grmasterb]

Originally Posted by brzzz

Indianapolis - Blue

Many people think this, and it seems that people base this solely on their perception of the region overall. Fact is, there aren't many sizable factories in Indy anymore. It's the HQ for Eli Lilly and Wellpoint. Several financial companies have a presence here, health care is a major industry (if not the top), and this is the state capital, so there are a lot of government jobs. Indy is far from a blue-collar town, and it hasn't been for awhile. In fact, it's almost downright corporate.

[Josseppie]

Denver is white collar and Pueblo is blue collar for the state.

[gulfstreamliberal]

I'm originally from LA and I'm surprised people think Los Angeles is white collar city too. It is very blue collar. Hollywood is great at perception I guess.

Despite the fake glitz you see on TV, metro Detroit has a higher percentage of millionaires than the Los Angeles MSA. And the vast majority of the people there are not fake, shallow, [insert generalization], the vast majority of Los Angelenos are normal, nice, working-class people.

San Diego is also a blue collar city.

[Ben Around]

Has more to do with what work the populus does than their educational level or income (though both are related).

[Thomas R.]

Well that American Community Survey also has tables that give the percent in manufacturing on the one hand and professional on the other. Ann Arbor, Boulder, Corvallis, and Ithaca again come out high in professionals. Additional college towns like Gainesville, Florida and Iowa City, Iowa do as well. Of bigger cities Boston, Massachusetts; Raleigh-Durham-Cary, North Carolina; San Jose, California; and Washington, DC again came out high.

United States by Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area; and for Puerto Rico - GCT2402. Percent of Civilian Employed Population 16 Years and Over in Professional and Related Occupations<BR>Universe: Civilian employed population 16 years and o

No city had 40% or more professionals, I don't think any large city had over 30% or at least not much over that.

In Manufacturing Dalton, Georgia and Elkhart-Goshen, Indiana would seem to be the tops among metros as each has around 40% in manufacturing. I don't seem to find many larger cities with high rates in manufacturing, but maybe Wichita, Kansas counts. Interestingly San Jose is listed as about double the average percentage for manufacturing jobs.

United States by Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area; and for Puerto Rico - GCT2404. Percent of Civilian Employed Population 16 Years and Over in the Manufacturing Industry<BR>Universe: Civilian employed population 16 years and over

[JJG]

Dallas is white collar.

Fort Worth is pretty mixed.