The participation of females and Hispanics in the blue collar workforce is increasing dramatically in the metropolitan markets surveyed regularly by The Media Audit.

"The percentage of blue collar households in the 87 markets we survey declined slightly, since 2000 from 17.9% to 17.3%," says Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, which produces The Media Audit.

Female participation in the blue collar work force is now at 34.9%, up from 31.6% in 2000. The percentage of Caucasians in the group declined from 59.1% to 52.8%. African-American participation also declined from 17.6% to 15.9%. Hispanics as a% of the blue collar work force increased from 19.0% to 22.5%. The participation of Asians remained unchanged at 3.7%. The blue collar work force got a little older during the same period. The number of blue collar workers between the ages of 18 and 44 decreased from 69.1% to 67.8%. During the same period, the compensation of blue collar workers improved modestly. The number of those earning less than $25,000 a year stayed virtually the same. Those earning 50,000 or more a year increased from 38.7% to 44.4%. Those earning 75,000 or more increased from 16.1% to 21.4% and those earning 100,000 or more per year increased from 6.5% to 9.7%. The percentage of blue collar workers who have health insurance is 68.5. That figure is approximately the same for both genders. Beyond that the similarities end. 19% of female blue collar workers earn less than 25,000 each year. Just 10.1% of male blue collar workers earn less than 25,000 each year. Slightly more than 60% of female blue collar workers earn 35,000 or more annually while 75.9% of men earn 35,000 or more annually. Just 34.6% of women earn 50,000 or more compared to 49.6% of men. Only 13.5% of male blue collar workers do not have a high school education. Among females it's 15.1%. The percentage of blue collar workers per metropolitan market varies from 24.4% in Tulsa to 11.7% in Ann Arbor. The ten markets with the lowest percentage of adult blue collar workers are: Ann Arbor, 11.7; San Jose, 12.1; West Palm Beach, 12.5; Washington, D.C., 12.6; Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, 13.3; New Haven, 13.6; Jackson (MS), 13.6; Tampa-St. Petersburg, 14.5; San Francisco, 14.8; Hartford-New Haven, 15.2.

The ten markets with the highest percentage of blue collar workers are: Tulsa, 24.4; Myrtle Beach, 24.1; Akron, 23.8; Memphis, 23.1; Rochester, 22.7; Toledo, 22.7; Milwaukee-Racine, 22.0; Dayton, 21.9; Allentown-Bethlehem, 21.4; Greensboro-Winston Salem, 21.1.