Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
Heartland
Megalopolis
0%
West
South
-10%
-20%
-30%
-40%
-50%
Figure 6.4.
Relative changes in manufacturing employment between
1970 and 2000 by census region
The first observation is that employment in manufacturing has decentralized.
While metropolitan areas (definitions from 1999) account for 82% of jobs, only 78%
of industrial jobs are located within a metropolitan area, down from 83% in 1970.
Industrial employment in metropolitan areas fell by 9% (1.4 million jobs), but grew
in non-metropolitan areas by 24% (0.8 million jobs) (see Figure 6.3).
The second observation is that industrial employment is declining in the
Manufacturing Belt states of the North and East. This is especially evident in the
deindustrialization of the Megalopolis region (see Figure 6.4). The 12 states of the
North Atlantic region lost 2.4 million manufacturing jobs between 1970 and 2000.
The balance in the Heartland region seems more stable with a loss of only 300,000
jobs, but what is really happening is that industrial activity is shifting westward. The
Great Lakes states recorded severe job losses, including -29% for Illinois and -22%
for Ohio, while manufacturing employment rose in other, more traditionally
agricultural Midwestern states. Finally, it is the state of New York that reported the
highest losses both in absolute and relative terms. Its industrial activity in 2000
employed only half as many (-49%) workers as it did in 1970.
Apart from local exceptions, industrial employment grew in the states of the
South and West. Industrial employment grew by 1 million jobs in western states
between 1970 and 2000. The increase in southern states was equivalent to 1 million
jobs created in 30 years. These observations generally support the theory of
industrial cycles. Early industrialization of the Northeast led to major restructuring
beginning in 1973, whereas the industrialization of the cities of the South and the
West began following the Second World War, and the post-Second World War
industrialization specialized in the new technologies only now coming to maturity,
such as the electronic and computer industries.
