Blue-collar Worker - Blue Collar Shift To Developing Nations

Blue Collar Shift To Developing Nations

See also: Deindustrialization

With the information revolution Western nations have moved towards a service and white collar economy. Many manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to developing nations which pay their workers lower wages. This outsourcing of jobs has pushed formerly agrarian nations to industrialized economies and concurrently decreased the number of blue-collar jobs in developed countries.

In the United States an area known as the Rust Belt comprising The Midwest, Western New York and Western Pennsylvania, has seen its once large manufacturing base shrink significantly. With the de-industrialization of these areas starting in the mid 1960s cities like Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Buffalo, New York, Niagara Falls, New York and Saint Louis, Missouri, have experienced a steady decline of the blue-collar workforce and subsequent population decreases. Due to this economic osmosis, the rust belt has experienced high unemployment, poverty and urban blight.

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