ROCKFORD (WIFR) -- White collar jobs are typically associated with clerical, sales or managerial occupations in offices. Local job experts say they account for less than 20-percent of today's workforce. The duties and job descriptions of these professionals have changed dramatically in the last decade, especially with more of us now using computers.

The highest unemployment rate in local white collar jobs is in sales. Since white collar workers tend to be older,experts believe the phenomenon is leading to a new breed of entrepreneurs.

" We're losing quite a few of the high level. White collar people and some of them have assets and are older in life. They're probably ready to start a business or do a new occupation. In many respects you'll see growth in the contractor operations or administrative services and this is where some of the people who are displaced in the traditional white collar jobs will end up."