A SERVICE CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN METROPOLITAN AREAS

Abstract

This study applies procedures developed by Nelson for his classic article on "A Service Classification of American Cities" to examine patterns of employment specialization among SMSAs in 1980. Frequency distributions of employment proportions by sector among metropolitan areas and maps of the locations of metropolitan areas specialized in different sectors reveal that many of the patterns previously observed for 1950 continue to be apparent, although there have been some notable changes, For example, service industries replaced manufacturing industries as the leading employment sector in many metropolitan areas between 1950 and 1980. For SMSAs in 1980, analysis of variance tests fail to support the thesis that employment specialization is closely tied to differences in population scale for most major employment sectors.