See America's Fastest Dying Industries

If you're being affected by the downturn in housing or financial services, hang in there. At some point, those industries will rebound. Others should be so lucky.

Just look at apparel manufacturers in the United States. According to the Labor Department, their ranks are expected to decrease by 54percent while their output falls more than 43percent between 2006 and 2016. Then there's the ailing printing business. Jobs in that U.S. industry will drop by 22percent during the next decade, with output falling by 12percent.

They're classic examples of twin death knells for industries: foreign competition and technology. Why make clothes in the U.S. when the labor is cheaper in China? Who wants to publish the old-fashioned way when it's cheaper to use the Internet?

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[MajorKong]

"If I pay a man enough to buy my car, he'll buy my car." - Henry Ford

[xrepublican]

Bowling alleys?!?!?! C'mon - more of the BS that's not really news..... we SHOULD be talking about the lack of FOUNDRIES, and other manufacturing plants in the US..... all those industries critical to the manufacturing capacity of a nation...... ANYTHING that needs labor to be MADE is a dying industry in the US because owners want the cheapest possible labor. That's why no clothes are made here - why NOTHING is made here.

And with newspapers failing to report any REAL news - and television news like ABC being complete embarassments as well (what WAS that absurdity last night? any REAL issues covered?) why should any intelligent person wast their time when REAL information is available on the web?

Of course FOREIGN publications and media still cover the news - well, those not owned by Murdoch - but here they'd make Orwell proud. MY 12 year old learns more about current events from the BBC and other foreign sources than he could ever learn from US sources.

[GreedyOldPsychopaths]

Newsflash for Forbes' Joshua Zumbrun and Brian Wingfield:

Apparel manufacturing has been on the decline in the US for more than a decade. They were among the first businesses to relocate their operations to foreign sweatshops. Look at the labels for most clothing today and you will see "Made in China", "Made in Pakistan", "Made in Bangladesh", etc. Nike practically wrote a Dickens' novel with their "offshoring" model and helped Michael Moore ("Roger and Me" - 1989, "The Big One" - 1996) become the documentary scourge of corporate America.

"Why make clothes in the U.S. when the labor is cheaper in China?

For that matter Josh and Brian, why make anything in the US? Hell, China can produce everything and the US can consume everything, and cheaply. Some small problems with that scenario, but I'm not exactly sure what they might be.

Idiots.

[ibsteve2u]

Yuck - that is an ABC/Forbes link...I'm not about to help fund that organization Steve Forbes is so fond of; namely, PNAC.

[ErnestineBass]

Same here, ibsteve2u. No clicks from me.