Those lost manufacturing jobs are fueling an intense debate over globalization — the increasing connection of the United States and other economies.
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
Fri Apr 20, 3:02 PM ET
WASHINGTON – Three weeks ago, Dawn Zimmer became a statistic. Laid off from her job assembling trucks at Freightliner’s plant in Portland, Ore., she and 800 of her colleagues joined a long line of U.S. manufacturing workers who have lost jobs in recent years. A total of 3.2 million — one in six factory jobs — have disappeared since the start of 2000.
Many people believe those jobs will never come back.
“They are building a multimillion-dollar plant in Mexico and they are going to build the Freightliners down there. They came in and videotaped us at work so they could train the Mexican workers,” said Zimmer, 55, who had worked at Freightliner since 1994.
That’s the issue for American workers. Many of their jobs are moving overseas, to Mexico and China and elsewhere.
But others note that the loss in manufacturing jobs has been accelerating in recent years as the trade deficit has grown and America imports more and more products that used to be made here.