Research on Impact of Offshoring Manufacturing By US Firms

This NBER paper describes the relationship between the loss of manufacturing jobs in the US and the impact on income inequality. There were 27 million employed in manufacturing in 1982 and only 17 million in 2002. Most of the the job losses were due to offshoring of manufacturing by US multinationals to low wage countries. Economic theory suggests that jobs lost in one sector will migrate to more competitive sectors without loss of income. Many of those who lost low skill manufacturing jobs had to shift occupations to lower paying service jobs. They conclude that we need some form of industrial policy that would provide higher paying jobs for those whose manufacturing jobs are offshored. I wonder what those would be.