What Is the Rust Belt?

The Rust Belt is a term used to describe the geographic region stretching from New York through the Midwest that was once dominated by the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:coal industry, steel production, and manufacturing. The Rust Belt became an industrial hub due to its proximity to the Great Lakes, canals, and rivers which allowed companies to access 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:raw materials and ship out finished products.

The region received the Rust Belt name in the late 1970s after a sharp decline in industrial work left many factories abandoned and desolate. This caused increased rust from exposure to the elements.

Where Is the Rust Belt?

The term Rust Belt is often used in a derogatory sense to describe parts of the country that have seen a drastic economic decline. The Rust Belt region represents the deindustrialization of an area that's often accompanied by fewer high-paying jobs and high poverty rates. The result can be a change in the urban landscape as the local population moves to other areas of the country in search of work.

The Rust Belt is also commonly referred to as the Manufacturing Belt and the Factory Belt. There's no definitive boundary but some of the states that are considered to be in the Rust Belt include:

• Illinois
• Indiana
• Michigan
• Missouri
• New York (upstate and western regions)
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin

The region was home to some of America’s most prominent industries such as steel production and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:automobile manufacturing. Formerlyꦑ prosperous manufacturing centers in Midwestern and Northeastern cities like Detroit, Toledo (Ohio), Pittsburgh, and Buffa𒉰lo produced heavy industrial materials and consumer products during the boom time and developed storage and transportation systems to distribute them to the rest of the country.

The region experienced a sharp downturn in industrial activity from the increased cost of domestic labor, overseas competition, technology advancements that replaced workers, and the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:capital-intensive nature of manufacturing.

Poverty in the Rust Belt

Blue-collar jobs have increasingly move🔯d overseas, forcing local governments to rethink the type of manufacturing businesses that can succeed in an area. Some cities have managed to adopt technologies but others still struggle with rising poverty levels and declining populations.

These are the poverty rates of the Rust Belt states listed here per the U.S. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Census Bureau as of 2022, the most recent data available. They're calculated as a three-year average from 2021, 2022, and 2023. The poverty rate of the entire United States was 11.1% for 2023.

History of the Rust Belt

The area was generally known as the country’s Factory, Steel, or Manufacturing Belt before it became known as the Rust Belt. It was once a booming hub of economic activity and represented a great portion of U.S. industrial 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:economic growth and development.

The natural resources that were found in the area, particularly coal and iron ore, led to its prosperity. Labor and ready access💛 to transport by available waterways contributed as well. This led to the rise in coal and steel plants which later spawned the weapons, automotive, and auto parts industries. People seeking employment began moving to the area which was dominated by the coal and steel i😼ndustries. This changed the region's overall landscape.

That began to change from the 1950s to the 1970s, however. Many 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:manufacturers used expensive and outdated equipment and machinery and they were saddled with the high costs of domestic labor and materials. Many began looking elsewhere for cheaper steel and labor to compensate, particularly from foreign sources. This would ultimately lead to the collapse of the region.

Decline of the Rust Belt

Most research suggests thatꦕ the Rust Belt began to falter in the late 1970s but the decline may have started earlier in the 1950s when the region’s dominant industries faced minimal competition.

The area accounted for more than half of all manufacturing jobs in the country in 1950. Powerful labor unions in the automotive and steel manufacturing sectors ensured minimum labor competition. Many established companies had very little incentive to innovate or expand as a result. They operated like 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:monopolies. This came back to haunt the region when the U.S. opened trade overseas, resulting in a flood of imports and shifting production to the Sout🦂h.

The Rust Belt faced competitive pressure domestically and overseas from 1950 through 1980. This led to lower wages and prices as well as the shuttering of many manufacturing jobs. Almost two-thirds of the region's employment share declined. Competitive pressure in productivity and labor markets is important to incentivize firms to innovate but weak incentives can drive resources to more prosperous regions.

The region’s population also showed a rapid decline. What was once a hub for 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:immigrants from the rest of the country and abroad turned into an exodus of people out of the area because jobs were no longer readily available. Thousands of well-paying blue-collar jobs were eliminated, forcing people to move away in search of employment and better living conditions.

Politics and the Rust Belt

The term Rust Belt is generally attributed to Walter Mondale who referred to this part of the country in this way when he was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1984 and attacked President Ronald Reagan, Mondale claimed that his opponent’s policies were ruining what he called the Rust Bowl. He was misquoted by the media as saying the Rust Belt and the term stuck. The term has consistently been used to describe the area’s economic decline since then.

Many Rust Belt states have historically voted Democrat but 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Donald Trump was able to turn Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin red in an unexpected turn of events in the 2016 election. These were states that Barack Obama won in 2012.

Joe Biden was able to flip back Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:2020 election but continued population shifts toward the Sun Belt states could leave the Rust Belt states a Republican stronghold. Donald Trump handily reclaimed the most contested Rust Belt states in the 2024 election, effectively ending the period of Democratic dominance among those constituencies.

The Rust Belt and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the Rust Belt hard. 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:White-collar workers throughout the country were able to work from home but this wasn't possible for most blue-collar workers. One study reported on 13 American cities that were particularly vulnerable to the twin crises of the pandemic and declines in mental health. Nine of these 13 cities were in the Rust Belt.

The lack of business during the pandemic shuttered many factories in the Rust Belt, exasperating an already dire situation. Many of the industries that were hit hard during the pandemic such as timber have large operations in Rust Belt states. Job losses due to the shuttering of manufacturing jobs amid the pandemic wiped out all the gains in Wisconsin between March and July of 2020 that the manufacturing sector experienced in the state since 2011.

The “region has been devastated by job losses amid pandemic-induced economic shutdowns, in some cases far outpacing the national average in terms of the proportion of their workforces that have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March [2020]," according to Politico. The report added that 29.6% of the Pennsylvania workforce filed for unemployment only a few months into the pandemic.

The Bottom Line

The Rust Belt refers to a region of the U.S. that was once a booming hub of industrial and manufacturing jobs due to the companies located there such as automotive and steel companies. The region lost many j🍷obs as manufacturing moved overseas and to the South after the 1950s and the country opened up to imports.

This resulted in a large-scale exodus of the population to look for employment elsewhere, resulting in urban decay and poverty. Many of these regions have been pivoting away from manufacturing since 2015 or so and they're attracting service-related jobs. Detroit has seen a revitalization of its downtown.