States Running Out Of Blue-Collar Jobs

[marmar]

from 24/7WallStreet:



States Running Out Of Blue-Collar Jobs
Posted: July 11, 2011 at 6:29 am


The size of the American blue-collar workforce continued to decline in the last decade. Between 2000 and 2010, the economy lost roughly 4 million blue-collar jobs, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, mainly as a result of manufacturing job losses, the housing crisis and, of course, the recession. 24/7 Wall St. analyzed the ten states where this erosion was the worst. These are the leading edge of an awful trend that has significant implications for the future of the U.S.’s economic recovery.

Early in the decade, the manufacturing base in the U.S. began eroding swiftly as companies accelerated the relocation of plants to areas of the world with inexpensive labor, most notably China and Mexico. Later in the decade, as the housing market collapsed and the economy fell into recession, large industries like auto manufacturing were further hurt by drops in demand.

The housing crisis hit another segment of blue-collar jobs. Falling home prices nearly halted building of new houses, and the home construction workforce was decimated. In states like California and Nevada, some home values plunged by more than 60%. Construction jobs in those areas disappeared. Property values fell sharply in other states like Arizona and Florida. Across the entire country, the construction industry shed a million jobs from 2000 to 2010

The appearance of some of these states on this list is unexpected. Michigan and California are here, but so are Connecticut, New Hampshire and Utah. Connecticut had large numbers of small factories that made finished goods in cities like Bridgeport and New Haven that closed down. In New Hampshire, machining factories are now a smaller part of the economy than they were in 2000. Mining activity in Utah has dropped as the demand for metals used in U.S. manufactured goods fell due to the shift to overseas manufacturing, which was also further exacerbated by the recession. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://247wallst.com/2011/07/11/states-running-out-of-blue-collar-jobs/#ixzz1RnQFRCF8

[pipoman]

1. Thank you repubs AND Dems

for all of those great free trade agreements!..fuckers..

[Dept of Beer]

2. But the good news is that the recession already ended.