ABSTRACT
The decline in manufacturing employment was so substantial that in the 1980s the nation came to label the major industrial states in the Midwest that had been home to steel, rubber, autos, trucks, and heavy machinery production as the "rust belt," with shuttered plants and idled workers. The stagnation of the US economy and employment has seriously affected the service sector, which had once been considered immune to recession, leading to a substantial restructuring of a large number of service companies of all sizes. For most of the post-World War II period the federal government's principal contributions to a high and sustained level of employment depended on the use of fiscal and monetary policies to assure that the general demand for labor would remain at or close to full employment. The chapter considers the role of the health care sector in creating employment opportunities for inner-city groups, both minorities and immigrants.
