- Employees began migrating to other sectors of the economy.
- U.S. industry faced more foreign competition.
National rates of economic misery masked the fact that certain regions and populations were hit much harder than others. Job losses were heaviest in the manufacturing sectors of the Northeast and Midwest. These regions-economic powerhouses in earlier periods-bore the brunt of the United States's decline as an industrial manufacturer in the face of foreign competition. The impact of deindustrialization on older U.S. cities during this era was staggering. Between 1967 and 1987, manufacturing jobs in Chicago dropped by 60 percent and in New York by 58 percent. Many jobs simply disappeared as factories shut down or relocated to other parts of the world. At the same time, employment was migrating to other sectors of the economy, such as service work. Jobs were also drawn to warmer parts of the country, especially Southern and Western states where right-to-work laws lowered labor costs by prohibiting collective bargaining contracts that required companies to hire union members.