Rust Belt

The Rust Belt is a term that gained popularity in the 1980s as the informal description of an area straddling the Midwestern and Northeastern United States plus small parts of the Upper South, in which local economies traditionally specialized in large scale manufacturing of finished medium to heavy consumer and industrial products, including the transportation and processing of the raw materials required for heavy industry. After several "boom" periods from the late-19th to the mid-20th century, cities in this area struggled to adapt to a variety of adverse economic conditions later in the 20th century, such as the movement of manufacturing facilities to the southeastern states with their lower labor costs, the rise of automation in industrial processes, a decreased need for labor in making steel products, and the deregulation of foreign trade policies. Places that struggled the most with these conditions soon encountered several difficulties in common, including population loss, depletion of local tax revenues, and chronic high unemployment.

A partial deindustrialization effect on the industrial North has been uneven in terms of geography and social class. Some regions, particularly along the Eastern Seaboard, saw an offset from an increased service sector. Problems associated with the Rust Belt persist elsewhere, particularly around the eastern Great Lakes, and many once-booming cities slowed economically on average in the latter half of the 20th century. Together with the neighboring Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario, Canada, cities in this area still compose one of the world's three pre-eminent manufacturing regions. Manufacturing recovered faster from the Late-2000s recession than other sectors of the economy, and a number of initiatives, both public and private, are encouraging the development of alternative fuel technologies.