General Business Updates and News

[tomh009]

Where did all the people who were working in manufacturing go? Did they go from decent paying jobs to minimum wage service industry jobs?

Well ... there is no simple answer.  There are still some people in manufacturing, but many of those manufacturing jobs are also very different from the traditional ones (think ClearPath or Aeryon -- or even Toyota).

But the traditional jobs didn't disappear overnight, it has taken decades.  By the 80s and 90s, manufacturing employment was already tapering off, so the manufacturing workforce was aging, as fewer young people were being hired.  So today, 20-30 years later, many of those people are already in retirement age, and either not working or doing something like Home Depot part time.  Others, yes, have had to find other jobs, often in another sector, and often not paying as well.  And some are still unemployed, although not huge numbers, as you can see by the relatively low unemployment rate.

As an aside, while the service industry in general doesn't pay like, say, traditional auto manufacturing (high wages plus defined-benefit pensions) it's certainly not all minimum-wage, either.