Bearing the Brunt: Manufacturing Job Loss in the Great Lakes Region, 1995-2005

This report examines recent trends in manufactuing employment in seven states of the Great Lakes manufacturing belt and in the 25 manufacturing-dependent metropolitan areas in those states. Trends are compared with information on manufacturing output and on employment in the advanced service sector, consisting of the information, financial activities, and professional and businesss services industries. As with manufacturing, these industries both pay higher-than-average wages and generate export income for their home regions. Because of their relatively high wages and exportability, and because, unlike manufacturing, they have added jobs during the past decade, the advanced services sector has the potential to be a foundation for high-wage regional economic development.