Until the 1980’s, layoffs hit blue-collar workers the hardest, leaving white-collar workers relatively unscathed. For the past decade, however, white-collar workers have been just as likely if not more likely to lose their jobs than blue-collar workers. The change is due in part to a shift in employment from the manufacturing sector to the service sector as well as a blurring distinction between blue and white-collar workers.
See "Pink slips hit the white-collar set", David R. Francis, The Christian Science Monitor, August 6, 2001