U.S. Senate
jec.senate.gov › public › _cache › files › 94bf8985-1e87-438b-9a3a-e3334489dd30 › background-on-issues-in-us-manufacturing-and-supply-chains-final.pdf pdf
Decades of Manufacturing Decline and Outsourcing Left U.S. Supply
to approximately 985,000 American manufacturing jobs being lost between 1991 and
Quora
quora.com › How-many-manufacturing-jobs-have-been-lost-in-America-due-to-outsourcing
How many manufacturing jobs have been lost in America due to outsourcing? - Quora
Answer: Ultimately millions. It is simple as to why. In many foreign countries, the wages paid are simply so low that a company can afford to offshore the operation and still pay the cost of transporting their goods across a vast ocean back ...
What exactly happened to U.S. manufacturing in 2000?
The early 2000s recession was notable for a "jobless recovery," i.e. economic output bounced back fairly quickly but employment was slower to follow. It was also the start of a steady and unprecedented decrease in workforce participation, reversing decades of growth as women joined the workforce, primarily driven by men without college degrees leaving the workforce. https://www.epi.org/publication/issuebriefs_ib186/ https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/700896# Note that U.S. population was growing steadily over the entire period of the graph you link to. In fact, it more than doubled between that peak in WWII industrial employment around 1943 and 2000. The fact that manufacturing jobs were essentially flat over that period already reflects a massive fall in the fraction of Americans that were working in manufacturing, and the fact that there WERE new manufacturing jobs/factories built anywhere in the U.S. means that a lot of jobs already were lost in the Rust Belt. But, why did such a sharp loss happen when it did, given the preceding decades of industrial decline and plenty of other recessions? Some argue that improved productivity was making many jobs redundant. Some attribute it to rising competition from China, India, and other nations. There was a housing bubble at the same time, so the construction industry was soaring, which if nothing else less obvious that manufacturing jobs were drying up. https://www.industryweek.com/the-economy/article/22006840/why-the-2000s-were-a-lost-decade-for-american-manufacturing https://www.aeaweb.org/research/did-the-us-housing-boom-obscure-manufacturing-bust https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USCONS More on reddit.com
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January 16, 20241 in 5 Companies Replaced Laid Off U.S. Employees With Offshore Workers
NGL this figure seems low. Probably due to anecdotal evidence but seems like we constantly see messages about my job X was outsourced. More on reddit.com
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August 15, 2024Anyone seeing more jobs going offshore?
I’m in Europe and I just started working for a major American company. Also seeing a lot of American companies advertising here now if they’re a remote first organisation. I have no doubt my salary is lower than my American based colleagues but it’s high in my country and the comp is still great, unheard of in Europe even. More on reddit.com
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July 22, 2024The U.S. is losing thousands of manufacturing jobs, analysis finds
Frankly, even getting the administration to acknowledge that there actually is a decline is virtually impossible. The official stance seems to be “everything is great and the numbers being reported are wrong.” More on reddit.com
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September 10, 2025Public Citizen
citizen.org › home › since 2017, hundreds of thousands of american jobs were offshored, trade deficit is up 22%
Since 2017, Hundreds of Thousands of American Jobs Were Offshored, Trade Deficit Is Up 22% - Public Citizen
October 14, 2020 - Mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis has wiped out 750,000 American manufacturing jobs. See here for live version of the Economic Policy Institute graphic below that shows jobs per month. U.S. has created new incentives to offshore jobs
IndustryWeek
industryweek.com › the-economy › trade › article › 22024695 › how-trade-policies-led-to-the-decline-of-american-manufacturing
How Trade Policies Led to the Decline of American Manufacturing | IndustryWeek
As a result of the escalated trade deficits from 2001 to 2010, the U.S. lost 5.8 million manufacturing jobs and 57,000 manufacturing firms closed. Where did all the jobs go? Well, the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that “U.S. multinational ...
Center for Strategic and International Studies
csis.org › analysis › do-not-blame-trade-decline-manufacturing-jobs
Do Not Blame Trade for the Decline in Manufacturing Jobs
March 11, 2026 - According to the BLS’s Job Openings ... manufacturing loss due to imports was 310,000 a year (this number would be 120,000 jobs lost per year if the gains from more exports were included)....
Everything Policy
everythingpolicy.org › policy-briefs › offshoring
Offshoring - Everything Policy - Briefs
While the data on offshoring suggests that not many jobs have been lost overall, these losses have been concentrated in certain industries such as manufacturing (especially autos).
Alliance for American Manufacturing
americanmanufacturing.org › press-release › new-report-2-7-million-u-s-jobs-lost-over-the-last-decade-due-to-growing-trade-deficit-with-china-2
NEW REPORT: 2.7 Million U.S. Jobs Lost Over the Last Decade Due to Growing Trade Deficit with China - Alliance for American Manufacturing
August 23, 2012 - Nearly 77 Percent of Total Job Losses Are in U.S Manufacturing Sector High-Tech Manufacturing Hit Hardest; Every Congressional District Suffers Losses VIEW AN INTERACTIVE MAP. Washington, DC. More than 2.7 million American jobs—2.1 million of them ...
Forbes
forbes.com › sites › jackkelly › 2024 › 10 › 15 › the-globalization-and-offshoring-of-us-jobs-have-hit-americans-hard
The Globalization And Offshoring Of U.S. Jobs Have Hit Americans Hard
October 16, 2024 - The impact of this trend has been particularly pronounced in the country's trade relationship with China. Since 2001, the U.S. trade deficit with China has resulted in the loss of approximately 3.82 million American jobs, with manufacturing ...
Manufacturing Today
manufacturing-today.com › home › why american manufacturing is losing jobs despite policies designed to bring them back. by vernon o’donnell
Why American manufacturing is losing jobs despite policies designed to bring them back. By Vernon O’Donnell
December 4, 2025 - The math isn’t adding up. The current administration’s tariff policies designed to encourage domestic manufacturing should be creating American jobs. Instead, US factories shed 78,000 jobs in the year leading to August 2025 according to the U.S.
Reddit
reddit.com › r/askeconomics › what exactly happened to u.s. manufacturing in 2000?
r/AskEconomics on Reddit: What exactly happened to U.S. manufacturing in 2000?
January 16, 2024 -
I've often felt bewildered by the below data series.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MANEMP
The link shows a big dropoff in manufacturing employment in 2000, which basically never reverses.
If you look at manufacturing employment by state, in basically every single individual state, the same pattern repeats. Massive dropoff in 2000 and then manufacturing employment never really recovers.
I understand deindustrialization and proposed causes in general, but I've never really understood the sharp dropoff in 2000. NAFTA had already been in effect for 6 years. The dot com bubble obviously burst, but that would seem to hit other industries more than manufacturing. And I obviously get why 2008 caused big job losses, but they were no worse than what occurred from 2000-2003.
So what happened? Why was 2000 the year that U.S. manufacturing employment just collapsed?
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The early 2000s recession was notable for a "jobless recovery," i.e. economic output bounced back fairly quickly but employment was slower to follow. It was also the start of a steady and unprecedented decrease in workforce participation, reversing decades of growth as women joined the workforce, primarily driven by men without college degrees leaving the workforce. https://www.epi.org/publication/issuebriefs_ib186/ https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/700896# Note that U.S. population was growing steadily over the entire period of the graph you link to. In fact, it more than doubled between that peak in WWII industrial employment around 1943 and 2000. The fact that manufacturing jobs were essentially flat over that period already reflects a massive fall in the fraction of Americans that were working in manufacturing, and the fact that there WERE new manufacturing jobs/factories built anywhere in the U.S. means that a lot of jobs already were lost in the Rust Belt. But, why did such a sharp loss happen when it did, given the preceding decades of industrial decline and plenty of other recessions? Some argue that improved productivity was making many jobs redundant. Some attribute it to rising competition from China, India, and other nations. There was a housing bubble at the same time, so the construction industry was soaring, which if nothing else less obvious that manufacturing jobs were drying up. https://www.industryweek.com/the-economy/article/22006840/why-the-2000s-were-a-lost-decade-for-american-manufacturing https://www.aeaweb.org/research/did-the-us-housing-boom-obscure-manufacturing-bust https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USCONS
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China joined the WTO in December of 2001, which meant that it was much less likely that the US was going to cut a manufacturer off from their Chinese suppliers. Businesses that would not import from China before started doing so when they got WTO membership. Apple had no manufacturing in China prior to 2001. There were also some other things going on -- the .com bubble and subsequent collapse, increases in automation, etc.-- but China in the WTO was a important factor.
Investment Monitor
investmentmonitor.ai › home › who killed us manufacturing?
Investigating the Decline: Who Killed US Manufacturing
May 20, 2024 - Between 2000 and 2010, nearly six million jobs in US manufacturing were lost, with the sectors most prone to globalisation displacement, such as textiles and furniture, taking the biggest hit, according to research by Bonvillian and MIT’s ...
AFL-CIO
aflcio.org › about › leadership › statements › outsourcing-america
Outsourcing America | AFL-CIO
March 12, 2004 - Forrester, the Berkeley study says, “translates to a little over 250,000 [lost jobs] per year, a number that seems conservative, based on the rate of outsourcing over the last few years, the experience of outsourcing in manufacturing, the increasing ability of an increasing number of countries ...
The Trumpet
thetrumpet.com › 2061-the-death-of-american-manufacturing
The Death of American Manufacturing | theTrumpet.com
Many Americans did not take notice in the beginning, because it was only the low-paid manufacturing workers making toys, shoes and clothing that lost their jobs to cheap foreign competition. But next to go were the higher-paid shipbuilders and steel producers; now it is auto workers and others.
Perfectunion
substack.perfectunion.us › more perfect union › here's what happens when corporations offshore your job
Here's What Happens When Corporations Offshore Your Job
January 14, 2025 - American manufacturing’s decline ... Clinton. A 2018 report by Public Citizen found that the United States had lost nearly 4.5 million jobs since 1993, the year before the agreement took effect....
Liberty Street Economics
libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org › 2019 › 02 › the-modest-rebound-in-manufacturing-jobs
The (Modest) Rebound in Manufacturing Jobs - Liberty Street Economics
December 5, 2023 - The transportation equipment industry lost nearly 730,000 jobs during this ten year period, due in large part to productivity gains tied to automation. The computers and electronics industry shed more than 720,000 jobs between 2000 and 2010.
Economic Policy Institute
epi.org › publication › reshoring-manufacturing-jobs
We can reshore manufacturing jobs, but Trump hasn’t done it: Trade rebalancing, infrastructure, and climate investments could create 17 million good jobs and rebuild the American economy
August 10, 2020 - Trump’s trade policies have failed to curb offshoring—and they have not addressed the root causes of America’s growing trade deficits and the decline of American manufacturing. On top of that, COVID-19—and the administration’s mismanagement of the crisis—has wiped out much of the last decade’s job gains in U.S. manufacturing.
BlueGreen Alliance
bluegreenalliance.org › resources › then-and-now-u-s-manufacturing-under-the-trump-and-biden-harris-administrations
BlueGreen Alliance | Then and Now: U.S. Manufacturing Under The Trump and Biden-Harris Administrations
August 20, 2024 - More than 200,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during Trump’s single term.
Economic Innovation Group
eig.org › wp-content › uploads › 2024 › 07 › TAWP-Handley.pdf pdf
What happened to U.S. manufacturing?
economists that Chinese imports did reduce U.S. manufacturing employment to some extent, and other · research finds similar effects using different estimation methods and shock measurement.13 · The China Shock occurred very fast and U.S. labor markets were simply not able to contemporaneously adjust · to the jobs lost ...
Forbes
forbes.com › forbes homepage › money › markets
Who Sent American Jobs Away?
May 1, 2016 - Once, America made and produced many great products here at home, providing jobs for millions of American workers. Nowadays, America continues to make great products. But American corporations have moved the production of many of these products overseas, to Asia and to Central and Latin America, sending millions of jobs away [...]