Their analysis separates workers into three classes, derived from Florida's research: the "creative class" of knowledge workers who make up about a third of the U.S. workforce (people in advertising, business, education, the arts, etc.); the "service class," which makes up the largest and fastest growing sector of the economy (people in retail, food service, clerical jobs); and the "working class," where blue-collar jobs in industries like manufacturing have been disappearing (this also includes construction and transportation).
The American Community Survey captures the types of occupations held by residents in local neighborhoods. Florida and his co-authors condensed those results into the three categories above — this is an admittedly imperfect exercise — and mapped the results by census tract across the 12 metros. The map above shows metropolitan Washington, where divisions between the service and creative classes are particularly striking, and where working-class neighborhoods appear all but extinct. In the purple splotches, "creative class" workers make up a plurality of working residents over 16.
Florida's picture doesn't necessarily mean that the wealthiest people in the metropolitan region now live there, but that the area is increasingly home to skilled workers like freelance graphic designers, non-profit managers, or Hill staffers. A non-profit manager and a lawyer might not earn the same income, but they use a similar set of intellectual skills that rely on creative, critical thinking. And they want to live near each other.
As this creative class expands into cities, repeatedly it's clustering downtown, along transit lines, near big institutions like universities, and close to natural amenities like waterfronts. And as these workers drive up the cost of living in these places, service and working-class residents are effectively left with the least desirable parts of town, the longest commutes and the fewest amenities. This is the darker side of Florida's ascendent "creative class."
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