Layoffs in the American Economy

As was true at about this same time in 1991, the Bush Administration and many private economists are contending that the American economy is emerging (or has emerged) from recession. Such claims, true (as may be the case in 1992) or false (as was the case in 1991) mean little to individuals who have lost their jobs and appear to have little chance of regaining them (Barlett and Steele, 1992, p. 25). New job creation in the United States in the spring of 1992 is modest at bestnot at all as has been typical of the American economy emerging from recession in the past. Further, most of the new jobs being created are in the service sector of the economy, and a high proportion of those jobs are at the lower end of the pay scale.

Industrial jobs from the aircraft manufacturing industry to the proverbial widget makers are being lost, and managerial jobs, particularly middle management, positions are also disappearing. The question being asked by millions of Americans concerns the duration of such job losses. In the past, jobs lost during recessions have been largely restored during recovery. The inability or unwillingness of some major American industries, such as automobile manufacturing, to compete with foreign manufacturers, together with the headlong dash by the Bush Administration toward a free trade agreement with Mexico (with its lure of low cost labor for American manufacturers) causes millions of Americans to think that

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e effects on Canada of the CanadaUnited States Free Trade Agreement. American firms will gain to the extent that they are able to become more price competitive in international markets; however, these export gains will accrue primarily to Mexico, not the United States, because it will be the Mexican production of American firms which is exported. To be fair, the Bush Administration is counting on a stronger Mexican industrial sector to increase its demand for American hightech data processing equipment, capital goods, and capital. Such an increased demand will benefit the American economy, and it will result in employment growth in hightech data processing equipment and capital goods production. The jobs lost in other sectors of the American economy, however, will not be transferable to the new demand areas; thus, a small army of unemployed and underemployed American workers will be created, and the American economy will be saddled with increased welfare and dislocation costs. With respect to longterm participation in the international economy, the United States looks on a North American free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States as a forerunner to Western Hemisphere free trading agreement encompas
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Approximate Word count = 1643
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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