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Is There a Link between the Changing Skills of Labor Used in U.S. Processed Food Trade and Rural Employment?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Gerald Schluter  and
Chinkook Lee
Gerald Schluter
Affiliation:
Food and Rural Economy Division, Economic Research Service, USDA, Washington, DC
Chinkook Lee
Affiliation:
Soka University of America, Aliso Jiejo, CA
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Abstract

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, processed food exports switched from using more skilled labor per unit of output than imports to the opposite. Processed food trade also expanded during this period. More meat and poultry products in processed food trade could explain this switch in skill intensity. Growing meat trade paralleled an urban-to-rural shift in meat processing. Although this could have been a win-win situation for rural areas, many of the jobs related to expanded meat trade benefited commuter and migrant workers because late-1990s jobs slaughtering livestock and processing meat did not appeal to domestic rural workers.

Keywords

consolidation in the meat industryfactor content of tradeinput-output analysisinternational meat tradeprocessed food traderural developmentrural labor demandskill intensityC67D24F14F16J61L66O18Q17R15
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , December 2004 , pp. 691 - 703
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2004

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