This microanalysis of manufacturing employment density-distribution patterns in the United States from 1947 to 1982 reveals that the density of production workers increased with distance from the Manufacturing Belt, while the density of nonproduction workers decreased. The research supports the hypothesis that the nation's hierarchical system of cities has served to sort manufacturing operations geographically on the basis of the returns that could be derived from different sized urban centers.

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... As a consequence of this sorting process, nonproduction workers have become more concentrated in large urban centers, while production workers have bec:Ome more concentrated in smaller settlements. Because most large urban centers are located in the Northeast and East North-Central regions, nonproduction workers have become more concentrated in the Manufacturing Belt, while production workers have settled primarily in other regions of the country. The process has helped to foster the development of a mosaic of geographically bifurcated labor markets among the larger and smaller urban centers throughout the country. The keywords in this paper include: deindustrialization, industrial restructuring, economic development, manufacturing employment redistribution, urban system, and industrial decentralization.