About a third of the jobs in the United States are at risk to the growing productivity of low-wage workers in China, India, Mexico and elsewhere, and this new reality exerts downward pressure on wages and working conditions for millions of Americans who still hold jobs. Because corporations now control the technology to shift operations anywhere, the strike threat is rarely an effective instrument of collective bargaining. Take it or we leave. The decline of Big Labor's political clout is reflected in changing governmental attitudes toward workers' rights. Given the mood of the new G.O.P. majorities in the House and Senate, corporations will be even freer to shift production to areas where workers are willing to settle for lower pay and fewer benefits.
Middle managers are also casualties of corporate restructuring.
This pressure on wages and salaries is only increased by the growing lust for downsizing. An American Management Association study based on interviews with corporate executives concluded that payroll-trimming is now a permanent strategy for many companies. Even an occasional C.E.O. is sacrificed in the effort to get the corporation down to fighting trim. But most executives are too politically astute to let this happen, even when their performance sags. Job-slashers tend to be well rewarded.