Deindustrialization - AP Human Geography

During the past half-century much of the developed world has experienced a process known as deindustrialization -factories and manufacturing centers have closed down in the United States of America, Western Europe, and Japan and those jobs have been outsourced to the developing world. This has led to the rise of “service-based economies” in the developed world. A “service-based economy” is an economy in which most of the workers are involved in providing services such as research, marketing, telecommunications, innovation, teaching, and so on.

During the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century the industrial center of the United States was the Midwest. Factories in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania accounted for a disproportionate share of American industrial power. When, in the 1970s, American companies began to move their manufacturing centers abroad, the economy of the Midwest suffered dramatically. Unemployment rose very quickly and people began to migrate away from the region in search of work and a sustainable living situation. This has led the region to be called the “Rust Belt,” based on the rusting heavy machinery lying around throughout the Midwest. Cities like Detroit, Flint, Akron, and Toledo have felt this transition particularly extremely.

In the 1970s and 1980s most of the developed world transitioned from a primarily industrial economy to a service-based economy. This had many benefits for the people of the developed world, such as higher wages and safer working conditions, but also brought with it many difficulties. The demand for unspecialized and factory-based labor declined rapidly and dramatically, as those jobs were transitioned overseas. Many workers were too old, or too deprived of any higher education, to transition smoothly into a new working environment, and unemployment and social unrest were rife throughout the developed world as a result.

During the past half-century much of the developed world has experienced a process known as deindustrialization -factories and manufacturing centers have closed down in the United States of America, Western Europe, and Japan and those jobs have been outsourced to the developing world. This has led to the rise of “service-based economies” in the developed world. A “service-based economy” is an economy in which most of the workers are involved in providing services such as research, marketing, telecommunications, innovation, teaching, and so on.

During the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century the industrial center of the United States was the Midwest. Factories in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania accounted for a disproportionate share of American industrial power. When, in the 1970s, American companies began to move their manufacturing centers abroad, the economy of the Midwest suffered dramatically. Unemployment rose very quickly and people began to migrate away from the region in search of work and a sustainable living situation. This has led the region to be called the “Rust Belt,” based on the rusting heavy machinery lying around throughout the Midwest. Cities like Detroit, Flint, Akron, and Toledo have felt this transition particularly extremely.

In the 1970s and 1980s most of the developed world transitioned from a primarily industrial economy to a service-based economy. This had many benefits for the people of the developed world, such as higher wages and safer working conditions, but also brought with it many difficulties. The demand for unspecialized and factory-based labor declined rapidly and dramatically, as those jobs were transitioned overseas. Many workers were too old, or too deprived of any higher education, to transition smoothly into a new working environment, and unemployment and social unrest were rife throughout the developed world as a result.

During the past half-century much of the developed world has experienced a process known as deindustrialization -factories and manufacturing centers have closed down in the United States of America, Western Europe, and Japan and those jobs have been outsourced to the developing world. This has led to the rise of “service-based economies” in the developed world. A “service-based economy” is an economy in which most of the workers are involved in providing services such as research, marketing, telecommunications, innovation, teaching, and so on.

During the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century the industrial center of the United States was the Midwest. Factories in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania accounted for a disproportionate share of American industrial power. When, in the 1970s, American companies began to move their manufacturing centers abroad, the economy of the Midwest suffered dramatically. Unemployment rose very quickly and people began to migrate away from the region in search of work and a sustainable living situation. This has led the region to be called the “Rust Belt,” based on the rusting heavy machinery lying around throughout the Midwest. Cities like Detroit, Flint, Akron, and Toledo have felt this transition particularly extremely.

In the 1970s and 1980s most of the developed world transitioned from a primarily industrial economy to a service-based economy. This had many benefits for the people of the developed world, such as higher wages and safer working conditions, but also brought with it many difficulties. The demand for unspecialized and factory-based labor declined rapidly and dramatically, as those jobs were transitioned overseas. Many workers were too old, or too deprived of any higher education, to transition smoothly into a new working environment, and unemployment and social unrest were rife throughout the developed world as a result.

During the past half-century much of the developed world has experienced a process known as deindustrialization -factories and manufacturing centers have closed down in the United States of America, Western Europe, and Japan and those jobs have been outsourced to the developing world. This has led to the rise of “service-based economies” in the developed world. A “service-based economy” is an economy in which most of the workers are involved in providing services such as research, marketing, telecommunications, innovation, teaching, and so on.

During the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century the industrial center of the United States was the Midwest. Factories in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania accounted for a disproportionate share of American industrial power. When, in the 1970s, American companies began to move their manufacturing centers abroad, the economy of the Midwest suffered dramatically. Unemployment rose very quickly and people began to migrate away from the region in search of work and a sustainable living situation. This has led the region to be called the “Rust Belt,” based on the rusting heavy machinery lying around throughout the Midwest. Cities like Detroit, Flint, Akron, and Toledo have felt this transition particularly extremely.