Ancestry's 1860 and 1870 US Federal Census collection can now be searched by occupation. Previously, trade and occupations were searchable only in the 1880 US Federal Census database.As far as I can tell, this update to the search fields occurred in early January, but I haven't seen it mentioned by anyone. Maybe I missed it. But it seems worth highlighting to Irish family historians as this extra searchable field could be handy for a researcher trying to identify an ancestor with a common Irish name. I won't be alone in having been grateful 'my' John Doyle was a Master Coachbuilder, or 'my' Patrick Tierney was a butcher! Anything that narrows down the number of individuals needing to be researched is likely to be helpful.
Just for the heck of it, some results from the 1860 US Federal Census: The number of Ireland-born architects was 57; shoemakers 6,567 (plus 369 bootmakers), miners 12,300 and teachers 1,919.
(With thanks to John Rogers for alerting me to the update.)