The Crisis

Deindustrialization is a process of economic and social changes that lessens the industrial capability or activity in a particular region. De-industrialization crisis refers to a decrease in the manufacturing capacity of a region and the transfer of employment away from the city.

A good example of this is when Detroit companies moved to other locations that required lower labour value. This caused high unemployment rate and an increase in the poverty rate.

In the United States, its population doubled in 1950 with an additional 150 million people. However, between 1950 and 2007 the population in manufacturing cities like Buffalo N.Y, Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis declined dramatically.

The twenty largest cities hold almost one-fifth of the country’s population in 1950. However, the population decreased to only about one-tenth in 2006.

Several small and mid-sized manufacturing cities experienced the same crisis. For example, Cumberland, Maryland’s population in 2005 went down from 39,483 to 20,915.

Population in smaller cities like Phoenix, Arizona increased dramatically within the last 50 years as people moved away from manufacturing cities.

The African American Experience in Cyberspace’s author stated that jobs left when the African Americans came in the cities. When African Americans started to live in the cities, industrial production was taken to rural areas and left the workers behind. The author added that the development of new technologies make unskilled workers unnecessary.