Globalization Squeezes Rural Factories, Jobs

Factories in rural America are experiencing significant layoffs that threaten the stability and growth of the rural American economy. A major factor for this economic downturn is globalization: workers in rural America now compete with workers everywhere. A refrigerator factory in rural Illinois is scheduled to close, leaving 1,600 workers without jobs, and crippling the local economy. The company will shift its operations to Mexico because of cheap labor, fewer regulations, and low taxes. As a researcher on these issues states: "Rural areas have typically offered an energetic work force, an inexpensive work force, inexpensive land and in many cases inexpensive taxes. That formula is increasingly called into question in a globalizing economy where there are locations that have even more inexpensive land and labor." – YaleGlobal