Direct employment in the industry has plummeted from a peak of 12,000 to 5,000. Many of the jobs eliminated were skilled positions. Moreover, most of the job losses were concentrated in economically hard-pressed regions. It has been estimated that each lay-off eliminated two or more jobs in related supply industries, and in the local industries that provide the goods and services shipyard workers consume. Troubling as these figures are, they lead to questions about the relevancy of the shipbuilding industry as a whole.
Globalization is much more than the provision of services.
It also involves the movement of goods. This is explained by the low cost of moving goods by sea as well as a high level of technological sophistication that has resulted in dramatic increases in efficiency. For example, certain ports, can unload what used to take days in one hour. A ten-year global forecast found that due to age, increased safety requirements and other regulations, nearly half of the world bulker fleet of 6,000 ships would have to be scrapped by 2006. Additionally, much of Canada's Great Lakes fleet is nearing replacement age, and its tanker fleet must be double-hulled by 2010.