COLUMBIA TOPS: In Missouri for white collar professional jobs, survey finds

COLUMBIA, 9/23/12 (Beat Byte) -- Columbia is #1 in the state for management, business, science, and arts occupations, otherwise known as "white collar" jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

With 42% of the population -- 37,430 out of 89,168 people -- employed as managers, teachers, engineers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, artists, and researchers, CoMo is ahead of #2 Kansas City, #3 St. Louis, #5 Rolla, and #6 Jefferson City. Old rival Lawrence, Kansas tops that state's white collar workforce population, with 42.7% of its population so employed.

Nationally, Columbia ranks 30th among all 942 cities on the list, which is based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 American Community Survey and includes some 50 million Americans, or 35 percent of workers.

Los Alamos, NM and Boulder, Colo. top the list. Nearly two thirds of residents in Los Alamos -- home of a major national laboratory -- work in white collar occupations.