ABSTRACT
America used to be known as the workshop of the world, and the country's early education system supplied semi-skilled labor for the established mass production lines and graduates to manage these new forms of production. Unlike other neighboring countries, such as Mexico and Canada, the American economy has a number of unique characteristics which account for the specific way in which it reacted to globalization and the process of restructuring. This chapter analyses how the country has responded to such competing demands, both in terms of changes to immigration and trade policy, as well as reforms to the country's education and training system. It explains some of the complexities behind the relationship between restructuring and human resource development in the USA. The chapter describes the economic restructuring that has occurred in the USA over the period 1980 to 2000, including a discussion of the main drivers of change.
