Deindustrialization

Deindustrialization is when a major industry, such as the iron, steel, and coal industry, or telecommunication industries outsources labor to other countries that can provide laborers to do the same job for less money than the laborers in the country it originated in. Another cause of deindustrialization is new technology that creates robots or machines to do labor which eliminates jobs for the people of that area. One example is the deindustrialization of the city of Huntington West Virginia which originally held tens of thousands of jobs in the iron and steel processing and manufacturing business until companies were bought out by bigger companies who had machines to do the same work as laborers. Another example is how telecommunication jobs have begun to decrease due to automation of customer services via new technology or companies have moved their call centers to other countries where workers don’t cost companies as much to employ, such as Middle Eastern countries. Also many American companies have closed mines and imported coal from other countries in the coal industry to reduce damage caused by mining to American lands.

Photo of deindustrialized buildling

Image: “31” by IX K  CC BY 2.0

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Our Sociological Glossary, by LWTech Students Copyright © 2021 by Lake Washington Institute of Technology is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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