Question

1. How has the North American Free Trade Agreement affected the flow of manufacturing jobs in and out of the U.S.?

2. What factors attract foreign businesses to the U.S.?

3. Drawing Conclusions: How do the jobs that are flowing into the U.S. compare with the ones that are flowing out?

Answer 1

1. The NAFTA agreement meant a free movement of Goods between the US, Canada and Mexico. This resulted in many American companies moving their factories to Mexico in order to take advantage of cheaper labor/business costs.
This moved thousands of manufacturing jobs to Mexico.

2. Foreign businesses want to do business in the United States due to it's large market. The US is the world's largest economy and the biggest marketplace for any company to make money.

3. Most of the jobs that left the United States were low to medium skilled manufacturing jobs. However, America's growing prominence in High-tech and finance meant that there has been a huge growth in the number of high-skilled high paying jobs.