Many other layoffs represent jobs being exported in pursuit of lower labor costs. Phillips-Van Heusen Corp. closed its G.H. Bass plant in Wilton, Maine and moved operations to Puerto Rico. The globalization of the labor market is a just one facet of a self-generating cycle of pressure on domestic wages. A large share of the imports are capital goods, which are used to increase domestic productivity and profits. So exporting jobs both drives down wages and builds profits, accentuating the gap between workers and capitalists.
Consolidations produce other layoffs.
Companies restructure after mergers and acquisitions, which always results in the loss of redundant jobs. The rise in the stock market reinforces this effect. As acquisition prices spiral upward, management has to make deeper post-merger cuts to make the deals pay off. It will eliminate 4400 of 18,000 jobs. The rise in worker compensation is a recent phenomenon following years of wage decline.