Freight & Floor

Independent information site

Work, trade and globalization

For many families, work and globalization mean closed plants, relocated production or new jobs somewhere else. We gather data on work, trade and globalization in one place and rely on sources you can check yourself.

Start with the BLS data Read about offshoring
A long, dim factory hall with an assembly line running into the distance

The idea in three steps

From the factory floor to the shipping lane

Steel parts moving along an industrial assembly line under hard light
Stacks of weathered shipping containers in a port at dusk
A container ship seen from above on dark ocean water

01

The floor

A product starts as a line of parts on a conveyor, in a plant in a town that has made things for generations. Employment figures begin here, with people who build things.

02

The dock

When production moves or contracts are signed, the same parts are packed into containers. Offshoring and outsourcing are different decisions, but both can end at the dock.

03

The route

From the dock, goods follow shipping routes across oceans. What happens to employment at home depends on trade, technology, demand and much else, never on a single cause.

What the data say

Manufacturing employment, drawn by scrolling

Employment in industry is best judged on numbers, not impressions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US manufacturing employed 19.4 million people in 1979 (annual average), 11.5 million in 2010 and 12.6 million in 2025. Those three points show a steep fall over several decades and a partial recovery in recent years.

  • 19.4M1979, annual average, the peak
  • 11.5M2010, the lowest point since 1960
  • 12.6M2025, annual average
US manufacturing employment, annual average, 1960 to 2025 Line chart of annual average US manufacturing employment from 1960 to 2025 in millions of employees: 19.4 million in 1979, 17.3 million in 2000, 11.5 million in 2010 and 12.6 million in 2025. 10M12M14M16M18M20M19601970198019902000201020202025 1979: 19.4M2000: 17.3M2010: 11.5M2025: 12.6M
US manufacturing employment, annual average, millions of employees, 1960 to 2025. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics, series CES3000000001 (manufacturing, all employees, seasonally adjusted). Annual averages calculated from monthly values retrieved from the public BLS API in November 2026; later revisions may change individual points slightly.

Numbers alone do not explain causes. We set the data beside events from the history of trade, but we do not assign a single cause to every change. When you read BLS figures, remember that they are annual averages and compare the same measure across years. See the full table and how to read the series.

What we cover

Five topics, one question: what happens to work?

Our articles bring order to how international trade affects the labor market. Each one follows a single thread, so it is easy to come back to the topic that interests you.

Method

Judge what you watch and read

We are an information site, not a shop. You will find no offers and no sales here, and the content exists only to inform. That lets you focus on facts, dates and sources.

We also want you to be able to judge for yourself what you watch and read. That is why we publish a guide to watching economic documentaries, which shows how to tell data from narrative. It is our way of treating work and globalization in a matter-of-fact way, so that you can draw your own conclusions.

Read the guide

An editing desk with a monitor, printed charts and a notebook

Three dates worth knowing

  • 1 January 1994 NAFTA entered into force.
  • 11 December 2001 China joined the World Trade Organization.
  • 1 July 2020 The USMCA replaced NAFTA.

These dates appear in many studies, so we state each one clearly and in context. If you are new here, the best way in is the article on BLS data, followed by offshoring, trade agreements or the Rust Belt.