FUNCTIONAL SPECIALIZATION IN WISCONSIN CITIES

Donald F. Stetzer

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

All cities are multifunctional in the sense that they perform a variety of functions. Cities differ, however, in the relative importance of each function. Numerous attempts have been made to classify cities as to their specialization in one or more functions (Harris 1943; Nelson 1955). These attempts have resulted in identifying cities that have unusually high specializations; cities Hith little specialization have been clas sified as diversified. The emphasis in this study, however, was not to identify individual cities but to examine a system of cities and determine changes that have taken place through time.

Wisconsin cities that had 10,000 or more people in 1960 and 1970 were examined since this population is the smallest city size for which the U.S. Bureau of the Census reports data on industry groups within cities. Data on employment characteristics were taken from census publications for each year (U.S. Census 1960, 1970) .

Census data were combined to form economically-integrated urban areas, herein called free-standing cities . I n other words, these combinations cons idered that some cities had heavily industrialized suburbs whose residents relied upon the central city or other suburbs for many urban services. In 1960 the 43 cities over 10,000 population were grouped into 24 free-standing cities. In 1970, 52 cities over 10,000 people were grouped into 25 f ree-standing cities. Between 1960 and 1970 Ashland was dropped from the listing, and Whitewater and Menomonie were added.

Minimum requirements

In order to inve stigate the urban employment structure, the minimum requi r ements method Has utilized ( Ullman 1960). The method yields a consistent quantitative st a tement which estimates the minimum percentage of a labor f orce required in various s ectors of an econ omy to maint a in the viability of an ur ban area. The emp loy ­ment in an urban area which i s greater than the minimum requirement i s called excess or export employment. The minimum re quirement clos ely a pproximate s the int ernal need s of a city , and t he exce sS emp l oyment r epr e s ent s the activities t oa t bring income to the c i t y .

17

18

From the percentages calculated fo r each employment category, the lowest percentage was selected as the minimum, and all employment in excess of this minimum was recorded. Table 1 provides the minimum percentage employment for each f unctional category for 1960 and 1970. Although three functional categories increased from 1960 to 1970, six categbries as well as the overall figure (56.1 to 52.0) declined.

TABLE 1

Minimum Requirement Percentag--es For

Wisconsin Cities: 1960 ape 1970

Function 1960 1970

;-lanufacturing 13.2 11.1

:.,rhoiesale Trade 1. 5 0.7

Transportation and Communications 2.3 1.9

Retail Trade 14.1 14.2

Finance, Insurance and Real Estate 1.9 2.7

Personal and Business Services 5 .4 4.3

Profess ional SeT'vices 8.8 12.1

Public Administration 1.9 1.6

Other 7.0 3.4

Total 56 .1 52.0

Table 2 shows manufacturing as the leading spec ialization i n most Wisconsin cities. In 1960, 21 cities specialized in manufact uring, yet in 1970 the nu~~er had declined to 17 citi es . More i mportant, however, was t he decrease be tween 1960 and 1 970 in t hose cities that specialized in manufacturing in both years. The reason for this decline i s not altogether clear. One plaus ible eX,lanation is t hat manufacturing employment has not increased a s much as in ot her employment areas, thus the relative i mpor tance of manu£act uring is perforce dec l ining.

S?ecialization index

The mini~um requirements me~hod was used in constructing an inde x £or specialization and divers ity . Excess employment by the nine industry sectors was calculated for 1 96 0 and 1 970 for each c ity

and squar ed. The squares were then divided by the minimum require­ment in each sector; these quotients. were then tota led, yielding an unadjusted index. This unadjusted figure was then reconciled to city size by dividing by an expression consisting of the square of the total excess employment divided by the total minimum requirement. In this study, this expression had the same value for each cens us year because the same minimum percentage was used for cities of diff erent sizes. The method acc~ntuates large concentrations in a few sectors. Conversely, a city with the excess distributed evenly over each of the nine sectors represents the most divers ified or least specialized city which would have an index of 1 . The index may be expressed as a formula, where ( S .I.) = specialization index, (P.) = percentage employment in a sector, and (M.) = minimum

1 d (.) . 1percentage an 1 = employment sector:

2 _ 1\ )2 ] O:.P. - L.M.)s . r. i 1 1 1 1

= IJP!V!. L!vl.

1 1 1

TABLE 2

Leading Specialization in Wisconsin

Cities: 1960 and 1970

1960 1970

Percent Percent Excess Excess

Employment Employment of of

Dominant Dominant Dominant Dominant City Function Function Function Function

Appleton t-lanufacturing 31. 7 !vianufactur ing 26.9

Ashland Prof essional 11. 2 aService

Beaver Darn r·lanuf actur ing 24. 1 !'1anufocturing 25.7

Beloit Manufac t uring 35 . 3 Manufact uring 34. 6

Ch i ppewa Fall s r·lanufacturing 14 . 7 l'lanufacturing 18 .7

Eau Claire r-ianufacturing 14 . 5 Pro fess ional 13 .6 Sel' vice

Fond du La c Ma nufac t uring 18 . 5 l'lanufacturing 19 .7

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TABLE 2--Continued

1960 1970 Percent Percent Excess Excess

Employment Employment of of

Dominant Dominant Dominant Dominant City Function Function Function Function

r:;reen Bay

":anesville

:<enosha

~a Crosse

::ad ison

~· !anitoHoC

:·:arinet:te

:':arshfield

;·:enomonie

:·:ilwaukee

Jshkosh

~acine

Sheboygan

Stevens Point

S oerio!'

\·:atertm·1!1

',: i sconsin Pap i s

l'1anufacturing

Hanufacturing

l'1anufacturing

Manufacturing

Professional Service

l1anufacturing

Hanufacturing

l~anufacturing

a

rlanufacturing

L'lanufacturing

'f'lanufacturing

{vianufacturing

Nanufacturing

Transportation [, Communications

r'ianufactur'ing

l'lanuf acturing a

t1anufacturing

14.9

31.3

38.8

17.3

19.8

37.7

21. 7

17.6

27.7

25.1

37.9

31.4

13.5

20.5

21+.5

18.8

35.0

Professional Service

Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Professional Service

Manufacturing

Hanufacturing

Professional Service

Professional Service

l'1anufacturing

Manufacturing

l'1anufacturing

f1anufacturing

Professional Service

Transportation [,

Communications

Hanufacturing

Hanufacturing

Professional . Service

i"lanufacturing

14.2

30.1

29.9

14.4

24.6

33.9

24.5

16.5

27.5

23.6

17.6

37.2

30.9

13.1

14.5

23.8

17 .4

22.1

:": 8 . 0

c. !ot ? eport ed

21

Table 3 presents specialization indexes for Wisconsin cities in 1960 and 1970. A decline in the mean value of the speciali­zation index from 2.24 in 1960 to 2.02 in 1970 suggests that the city system is slowly becoming more diversified with the passage of time. As already mentioned, this decline is probably due to the decreasing importance of manufacturing and the increase in other sectors, particularly professional services.

One can hope that these trends in the structure of Wisconsin cities will become clearer when the 1980 Census datB are released. As cities lose industrial firms, it would seem reasonable to expect that their employees will move into o~her sectors of the economy. However, because of automation, it is possible that employment in new manufacturing enterprises may not equal that which existed in the departing firms.

TABLE 3

Specialization Index For Wisconsin

Cities: 1960 and 1970

1970a

1960a

1970 1960 Rank Rank City Index Index

1 1 Superior 3.42 5.34

2 3 Racine 3.21 3.22

') v 4 l'iani towoc 2.74 3.18

4 8 Madison 2.61 2.45

5 6 Beloit 2.56 2.82

6 16 \~atertown 2.51 1.68

'7 I 10 Sheboygan 2.27 2.35

8 9 Janesville 2.20 2.39

'j 7 Appleton 2.27 2.67

10 2 Kenosha 2.06 3.38

11 b Nenomonie 2.03

b

." L~ 11 [1ih,aukee 2.03 2.06

1 3 5 I-lisconsin ~ap i ds 2.03 2.85

14 19 i~arshfield 1. 96 1. 51

15 17 Beaver Dam 1. 88 1.66,

16 22 Fond du !"ac 1.68 1.43

22

TABLE 3--Continued

1970a 1960a 1970 1960

Rank Rank City Index Index

17 21 Green Bay 1.67 1.46

18 20 Marinette 1.67 1.47

19 14 Oshkosh 1. 57 1.71

20 15 Chippewa Falls 1.49 1. 70

21 23 La Crosse 1.39 1.34

22 b Whitewater 1. 36 b

23 13 Wausau 1. 35 1. 81

24 12 Stevens Point 1.34 1.88

25 24 Eau Claire 1.34 1.30

Hean 2.02 2.24

a Ashland not reported in 1970; its rank was 18th in 1960. b Menomonie and Whitewater not reported in 1960.

Population, pt. 51, Wi s cons in.

REFERENCES

Harri s , Chauncy D. "A Functional Classification of Cities in the United States." Geographical Review 33 (1943): 86-89.

Nelsem, Howard J. "A Service Classification of American Cities ." Economic Geography 31 (1955): 189-210.

Ullman, Edward . L. and Dacey, Michael F. "The Minimum Requirements A~proach to the Urban Economic Base." In Proceedings of the I.G.U. Sympos ium in Urban Geography. Edited by K. Norsberg. und, Sweden: Gleerup, 1960.

Ull man, Edward L., Dacey, Michael F. and Brodsky, Harold. The Economic Base of American Cities. Revised Edition. Seattle: Univers ity of Washington Pres s , 1971.

U. S . Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census. United St a tes Census of Population: 1960. Vol. 1, Characteri ~tic s of the Population, pt. 51, Wisconsin.

U. S . Department of Commerce . Bureau of t he Census . United Stat e ~>

Census of Population: 1970. Vol. 1, Characteri stics of t he