[SteveGerencser]

It happens more often than you would expect. I live in an area of West Tennesse that made sports apparel for the most part. After the signing of the NAFTA agreement in 1993, we lost multiple factories and unemployment jumped to 20% in less than 2 years.

It took out the factory jobs, the service jobs that supported all of the people that worked there, and sent more than one county into such a downturn that it has still not recovered fully. Everywhere you look are empty buildings and homes as large sections of the community was forced to pick up and leave to find work.

[Avshalom]

Speaking of Tennessee. The VW plant in Chattanooga fired like half of its work force after a year because it turned out no one wanted an extra ten thousand Passats. No way for workers to see that coming after years of consistent growth in Passat sales. Now 'fortunately' it was only a year for anyone so no one's life got too upended but that shit happens all the time

[bobwaycott]

It wasn't anywhere near half the workforce. It was 500 temp/contract workers who'd been brought on for a third shift to keep up with anticipated demand. When supply outpaced demand and dealership inventories were growing too large, they cut the third-party temp workers, and went back to two shifts. It still sucks, but your understanding of the facts is off. Temp workers are constantly in a state of gaining and losing employment. It's a pretty awful way to engage employment. VW is still a major employer around here, and never seems to cease hiring (or at least heavily marketing available jobs throughout the area).

[Avshalom]

Every one was a temp/contract worker

[bobwaycott]

I'm honestly unsure of how to understand your point here.

[Avshalom]

Every one who didn't get laid off was also a temp/contract worker or at least started as because that's how everything is. You didn't/don't get hired by VW you get hired by Aerotek. They weren't temp because they were willing to live with that uncertainty they were temp because that was only way to get a job.

[bobwaycott]

For production positions, yes, people start with Aerotek. But that's not the entire workforce. And the closing of one shift was still not half the workforce, nor was everyone who was left Aerotek staffers. There undoubtedly were a great many production employees left who were still Aerotek at the time, but there were many left in the total workforce who were not temp workers. Again, I'm not saying it didn't suck, because it did, and there was a noted impact in people's lives here when it happened. But the facts are still quite different from what you initially stated.