Perhaps the most obvious result of outsourcing to other
countries is the unemployment it causes. Millions of jobs have
been outsourced in the last few decades, and the numbers
increase significantly every year. The most job losses by far
have been in the manufacturing industry. Americans used to
produce nearly every item they bought. Four decades ago, a
fourth of all working Americans were employed in
manufacturing. Now, manufacturing jobs have decreased to a
small fraction of that. In fact, less Americans are employed in
manufacturing now than in any time since the Industrial
Revolution (Morely 2003).
Hundreds of major industries that were long held leaders in
U.S. manufacturing have shut down nearly all U.S.
production. These include leaders in automotive, machinery,
furniture, energy, electronics, and textile manufacturing
among many others. These are high demand products of which
billions are purchased each year. The outsourcing of these
industries accounts for millions of jobs lost (McCormack 2009).
Tens of thousands of American factories have left the U.S.
Tens of thousands more are at risk. With these factories went
millions of manufacturing jobs (McCormack 2009).