Over the years, dress codes have changed dramatically but many jobs are defined by the traditional colors of the work uniforms of those who perform them. When we say blue-collar jobs, we are typically referring to jobs that involve manual labor or other hands-on work. The term blue-collar stems from the work uniforms worn by industrial workers which consisted of blue shirts and pants or blue coveralls. These were made from heavy-duty denim fabric in blue so that it doesn’t get as dirty if it were in plain white especially because some blue-collar jobs like automobile manufacturing and repair, construction, and many more tends to be. White-collar jobs refer to clerical, sales or managerial jobs where traditional dress code is corporate clothing with button-down dress shirt with coat and tie. Pink-collar jobs are those traditionally held by women such as teaching and secretarial work. Very recently a new term has come out - the green-collar jobs which naturally refers to those jobs that benefit the environment. Examples of green collar jobs can be found in one of my earlier posts entitled Finding a Job with Meaning.

The current economic slump has showed us that not all jobs are created equal. Some are certainly doing better than most such as health care sector, service industry particularly leisure and hospitality and a few more industries. The recession though is not limited to blue-collar jobs because there are also white-collar jobs that have been having problems. Pink-collar jobs, specifically the teachers, are also in turmoil due to the unprecedented layoffs that occur over the summer. On the other hand, temp and other clerical services are on the rise. The worst part of this is the fact that some states did not fare well and has lost more blue-collar and/or white-collar jobs within 2000 to 2010. The closing of large companies combined with calamities as well as the relocation or outsourcing decisions by large automobile and manufacturing industries combined to further drive down the employment in both blue and white collar jobs.

In the last decade the American blue-collar workforce declined as manufacturing jobs were lost. According to the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 4 million blue-collar jobs were lost between 2000 and 2010. One major reason for this includes the relocation of manufacturing plants to other countries like Mexico and China where labor is cheap. The collapse of the housing market did not help any as falling home prices stopped building of new houses. Home values and property plunged so deeply that the construction industry discarded million of jobs from 2000 to 2010. And the recession made it worse as more and more lost their jobs.

Some states had a great decrease in blue-collar jobs but have recovered in some other way like tourism. In the case of Vermont, this has one of the greatest percentage decreases in blue-collar jobs ay -7.23%, but has recovered greatly from the recession largely due to tourism. Utah which comes 2^nd in percentage decrease in blue-collar workforce is also slowly recovering in retail and manufacturing. Between 2000 and 2010 they lost almost 110,000 jobs and only 15, 000 were white-collar. New Hampshire has the greatest percentage decrease in blue-collar workers at almost 8%, around thirty thousand blue-collar jobs were lost, the vast majority of which were production jobs, including factory jobs. But the difference is that New Hampshire has the lowest percentage of residents living below poverty level and they have made a strong recovery post-recession with the manufacturing industry making a strong comeback.

Arkansas and Michigan complete the top 5 states where blue-collar jobs are slowly disappearing. But there is also a great difference between the 2 states since Michigan was one of those hardest hit by recession and where unemployment rate is significantly higher than the national average. On the other hand, Arkansas fared best in terms of unemployment and since then has experience a slight growth in jobs over time. Michigan has lost of roughly 623,000 blue-collar jobs in the last decade while Arkansas lost 60,000 positions in the course of the decade. The biggest decreases came from the manufacturing industry for the 2 states. Remember that Michigan is the center of the automobile industry with General Motors, Ford, Delphi Automobile, and TRW Automobile as well as houses some of the Fortune 500 companies like Lear and Kellogg. And problems in any of these industries will likely affect them.