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New Perspectives on the Decline of U.S. Manufacturing Employment

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  • Teresa C. Fort
  • Justin R. Pierce
  • Peter K. Schott

Abstract

We use relatively unexplored dimensions of US microdata to examine how US manufacturing employment has evolved across industries, rms, establishments, and regions. We show that these data provide support for both trade- and technology-based explanations of the overall decline of employment over this period, while also highlighting the di-culties of estimating an overall contribution for each mechanism. Toward that end, we discuss how further analysis of these trends might yield sharper insights.

Suggested Citation

  • Teresa C. Fort & Justin R. Pierce & Peter K. Schott, 2018. "New Perspectives on the Decline of U.S. Manufacturing Employment," Working Papers 18-17, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:18-17
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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