After a layoff, your collar color matters
For many people, the term “layoff victim” conjures up an image of an unlucky factory worker. But four European economists, in a paper published by the Institute for the Study of Labor, say that an involuntary job loss is far more harmful to white-collar workers.
The economists, relying on data from Austria, find that both white- and blue-collar workers suffer in the first few years after a mass layoff, but that the office-dwelling crowd suffers more. And the manual laborers eventually bounce back:
Moreover, for blue collar workers employment losses are modest and earnings reductions are negligible in the long-run (years 6-10 after displacement). In contrast, white collar workers experience strongly negative employment and earnings effects also in the long run.
The authors say the result probably has something to do with “firm-specific human capital.” That’s the knowledge a worker gains about a company’s culture, products and procedures, and it’s the stuff of which white-collar careers are made. Throw the worker out of the firm, and such knowledge quickly loses value.
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
So what your’e saying is, blue collar workers are willing to go out and take whatever job comes up to be able to support his family while the white collar worker doesn’t want to lower himself to that level?
No, Willys, that’s not what the article said… It means that the blue collar worker’s skills are more easily transferred to another employer while the white collar worker’s skills are more specialized, having been honed to what his current employer needs, making his skills less valuable to any future or potential employer.. In other words, he’ll need to start over..