Factories closing, construction jobs wiped out, unemployment through the roof. What’s a man gotta do to get a job? Get a degree they say. It will offer some protection. Bull crap.

When the housing market collapsed, everyone thought the layoffs would be limited to Wall Street. Then credit markets caved in, and the money for housing dried up; construction came to a halt. The economy followed.

Every recession is referred to as a blue collar recession because many blue collar jobs rely on the economy itself. Manufacturing is very much cyclical, in that when the economy is good so is the sector. When the economy suffers, they get laid off. But the truth is white collar workers have it just as bad, and may have it worse.

It all comes down to how you market the data. It’s easy to spin the employment data to fit the blue collar recession headline. One common citation is unemployment divided up into educational attainment. The categories are: less than high school diploma, high school diploma, some college or associates degree, and college degree or higher. The unemployment rates start high and work their way down: 14%, 10.3%, 8.7%, and 4.6%. By this metric it does look like a blue collar recession since blue collar jobs typically require less education. But what if we measured the % increase in unemployed from 2007 to today? Do the numbers tell the same story? Hardly:

You’re probably going to have to click on the picture to really read it, but I’ll also explain.  From left to right we have the increases in the total number of unemployed from August 2007 to August 2010 represented as a percentage.  Across the board the unemployed have more than doubled, but the ones that have suffered the most are those with some college or an associate’s degree.  After that are people with a high school degree and no college, and behind them are people with college degrees.  No single one stands out, they’ve all suffered.  What’s worse though is that the size of the workforce for associates and college degrees has increased over the last 3 years, while it’s decreased for the high school and no high school crowd.  In other words, we’re becoming more educated, and those areas shed jobs just as quickly.

But what if by blue collar recession, they’re really talking about specific industries?  Well I’ve got that covered too.

Once again, you’ll want to click the image to make it big enough to read.  But I’ll break it down for you.  The blue lines are the total unemployed in each category in 2007.  Red is 2010.  The tallest one, meaning it has the most unemployed, is sales and office occupations.  This includes everything from models to insurance agents and the offices that support them.  Hardly blue collar.  Second to that is service occupations which include a lot of hospital work, police, and some blue collar work like pest control and grounds maintenance.  Behind that is the most white collar of them all though, management professionals.  No doubt construction has taken it’s fair hit, but that’s what happens when a bubble industry pops.

The point of this post is not to say that white collar workers have suffered more (though that could be argued), just that blue collar workers aren’t alone.  And that you spin data to fit any headline you want.

This isn’t a blue collar recession.  It’s a recession, and no matter what collar you want to wear to work, you’re hurting.

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  By 		The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

categories: business, economics, jobs