You have this backwards - sitting/standing (and autonomy etc.) are the data, and blue-collar/white-collar are names for clusters in that data, and the latter depend on the former. After all, workers choose a shirt according to their job role, not the other way around!
Also more importantly, I think the main point of the article is that it's not just two clusters; there are several interesting axes to look at. E.g. electricians are "standers" but have autonomy; bookkeepers are "white collar" but do little problem-solving, etc.
> bookkeepers are "white collar" but do little problem-solving
It is interesting that you think bookkeepers (accountants?) do little problem solving. I am sure they spend most of their day trying to track down missing expenses, or duplicates, or hard to categorise, or some weird tax law. That sounds like more than "little" to me.
Perhaps you're right. I suppose my annoyance is that by choosing sitting/standing as their variable, they gave the impression that they were telling a new and/or interesting narrative, when really they were presenting something well established and entirely common-sense (physical laborers get paid less and have poorer working conditions than office workers).
I follow you, but I read TFA as saying the complete opposite of that. To me TFA is illustrating that "white-vs-blue-collar" is something of a thought-terminating cliche, and that looking at the actual data shows that various jobs cluster in ways you wouldn't expect if you assumed there were two big white/blue categories.
(Also I interpreted "standing/sitting" as basically being a catchy title - I think the author's premise is that all the axes he examined are relevant, not just the standing/sitting one.)
> bookkeepers are "white collar" but do little problem-solving, etc.
If you think that then I’d wager you’d never had to digitise any form of economic based system. I need an accountant to even begin to tell me how to do their weird nonsensical math, because it’s not actually math but law. Law which is open to interpretation. Law which still has to be boiled down to financial calculations and budget planning.
In Germany you get a green tariff when you produce solar energy. You do this in most of Europe, but in Germany the tariff goes away if you exceed a certain amount of energy production, as in, you’re either paid X or you’re paid 0.
Basically, yes - it's a loose term for those kinds of roles. The specific field in TSA's data is labeled "Bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks".
Also more importantly, I think the main point of the article is that it's not just two clusters; there are several interesting axes to look at. E.g. electricians are "standers" but have autonomy; bookkeepers are "white collar" but do little problem-solving, etc.