Of the 10 largest cities in the country only one—­Detroit—­had in 1910 a greater proportion of its wage earners engaged in industrial employment than Cleveland.  Relatively Cleveland has one and one-fourth times as many industrial workers as New York, Chicago, St. Louis, or Baltimore, and one and two-fifths times as many as Boston.  On the other hand a smaller proportion of the adult workers of the city earn their living in professional, clerical, and commercial work, or in domestic and personal service employments than in most large cities.

Table 1 shows by large occupational groups the distribution in 1910 of the working population in Cleveland.  The classification is that adopted by the federal census.  More than 56 per cent of the male workers of the city and about 33 per cent of the women workers were engaged in manufacturing and mechanical occupations.  The trade group ranks next, about 14 per cent of the men and approximately 11 per cent of the women being engaged in commercial occupations.  Of each 100 women in employment 30 are servants, laundresses, housekeepers, or are engaged in some other form of personal service, while only five men of each 100 earn their living in this kind of work.  Railroad and street transportation, with the telegraph and telephone and mail systems of communication, requires the services of 11 per cent of the male working population, but uses very few women.  About seven per cent of the men and 15 per cent of the women are employed in clerical work.  A slightly larger ratio of women to men is found in the professional occupations, due mainly to the large number of women in the teaching profession.  The whole professional group constitutes less than five per cent of the total working population.

TABLE 1.—­OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE WORKING POPULATION OF CLEVELAND, CENSUS OF OCCUPATIONS, 1910

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Occupational group                      |   Men   | Women  |  Total
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Manufacturing and mechanical industries | 109,644 | 18,201 | 127,845
Trade                                   |  27,229 |  5,942 |  33,171
Domestic and personal service           |   9,546 | 16,467 |  26,063
Transportation                          |  21,530 |  1,110 |  22,640
Clerical occupations                    |  14,047 |  8,100 |  22,147
Professional service                    |   7,204 |  4,869 |  12,073
Public service                          |   3,461 |     39 |   3,500
Agricultural and extraction of minerals |   1,367 |     80 |   1,447
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Total                                   | 194,078 | 54,808 | 248,886
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From the standpoint of vocational training one of the most striking facts about Cleveland wage-earners